No. of Chinese visitors to Jeju hits record high

By Lee Hyo-sik

Wherever you are on Korea’s southern resort island of Jeju these days, it is a sure thing that you will run into groups of Chinese tourists. Hotels and other hospitality-related businesses catering to visitors from the mainland are flourishing, earning tens of millions of dollars each month.

Some residents there say that the number of annual Chinese visitors will soon surpass the Jeju Island population of 570,000. Given all this, it is not surprising that the number of Chinese visitors to the island has reached an all-time high as of early this month, exceeding last year’s figure.

According to Jeju Tourism Organization (JTO), Tuesday, 411,000 Chinese came to the resort island from Jan. 1 through Oct. 2 this year, surpassing the 2010 figure of 406,164. Including, the number of non-Korean tourists visiting Jeju totaled 737,713, up 23.5 percent from the same period last year.

``We are positive that more than 1 million foreign visitors will come here by the end of this year,’’ a JTO spokesman Lee Young-soo said.

He said even though the number of Chinese and other foreign tourists remained stagnant early this year as a result of geopolitical tension surrounding the Korean Peninsula and Japan’s earthquake, more foreigners have begun coming to Jeju since June.

``A visa-waiver program for Chinese nationals visiting the island and more air routes linking the island with Shanghai and other Chinese cities combine to attract more tourists from the mainland,’’ the spokesman said. In 2008, the Korean government began allowing Chinese to stay on the island for up to 30 days without a visa.

Lee also said several Chinese companies have sent their employees to Jeju Island on a corporate sponsored trip, providing a further boost to the island’s tourism industry.

In September, a total of 11,000 employees of Pro-Health Product, a health-care and first aid goods manufacturer based in Guangzhou, came to Jeju on a four-day tour program. In July, Infinitus China sent 2,013 employees to Korea as part of an employee incentive program. They visited a number of tourist spots on Jeju.

``We expect larger numbers of Chinese tourists will come here during the Chinese national holiday, which will last through Oct. 7. We think this trend will continue for the remainder of the year. But we have a long way to go before Jeju Island becomes a truly popular tourist destination in Asia,’’ the spokesman said.

He urged Korean Air and other local airlines to increase the number of flights connecting Jeju with both domestic and international cities, as well as to operate larger airplanes to bring in more visitors at a time.

``The central government should allocate more budgets to expand lodging facilities and other tourism infrastructures here. It also needs to ease regulations on the tourism sector so that private businesses are more encouraged to invest money on the island,’’ Lee said.