Jeju losing luster as tourist destination

More locals traveling overseas over resort island

By Kang Seung-woo

A mother of two children, identified as Kang, used to travel to Jeju Island in late December to celebrate New Year's Eve, lured by its natural attractions and convenient accommodation.

However, the southern resort island no longer makes her list of year-end vacation destinations as she is turning her attention to other sightseeing spots in nearby countries.

“Whenever we visited Jeju Island, it was same old, same old. Even though it is recognized as the No. 1 tourist destination in Korea, I think it is not living up to that reputation,” she said.

Like her, more Koreans as well as foreign tourists are turning their backs on Jeju due to a lack of content to encourage tourists to revisit the island.

“Despite its natural advantages, I think Jeju is failing to take advantage of them at all. Even some museums such as the Teddy Bear Museum, the Hello Kitty Museum and the Museum of Sex and Health bear no relation to the island,” said Howard Kim, a public relations director who often travels to neighboring countries for vacation.

“It needs to come up with attractions that are more like Jeju.”

Some market watchers say Jeju tourism's heyday is nearing its end or it is already past its prime, as evidenced by many indicators.

According to the Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Tourism Association, the number of visitors to Jeju surpassed 5 million in 2005 for the first time and the resort island ushered in the era of “mega tourism” in 2013, with the figure topping the 10 million mark.

Three years later, more than 15 million traveled to Jeju, tallying 15.9 million visitors.

However, the achievement turned out to be short-lived as it fell below the 15 million mark in the most recent two years ― 14.7 million in 2017 and 14.3 million in 2018.

It was the first time ever that the number of tourists to Jeju declined for the second straight year since the data collection began in 1962.

In 2017, Jeju tourism was devastated by China's THAAD retaliation.

The Chinese government banned travel agencies from selling travel packages to Korea in March 2017, angered by the Korean government's decision to deploy the U.S. anti-missile system on the Korean Peninsula ― a brutal blow to Jeju's tourism industry that was heavily dependent on Chinese tourists.

To make the situation worse, locals are stopping traveling to Jeju.

Last year, the number of locals who visited the island decreased for the first time in four years ― from 13.5 million in 2017 to 13 million in 2018.

“Recently, more Koreans are opting for affordable overseas destinations over Jeju Island,” said an official of the local tourism industry, giving such examples as Macao, Japan and Southeast Asia.

“In addition, Jeju is known for its affordable golf courses, but it is now losing many golf tourists as they are no longer exempted from the special consumption tax, meaning golfers have to pay more than before.”

Another industry official said the reduction of flights to Jeju also negatively affected the decline.

“Rather than providing flights to Jeju, local airlines are more focused on flights overseas, which led to the decrease,” he said.

Despite the losing note, Jeju is witnessing an oversupply of hotel rooms, according to the latest report from the state-run bank.

According to the Bank of Korea's Jeju branch, last month, hotels and other accommodations on Jeju Island had 71,822 guestrooms at 5,182 hotels and other accommodations as of the end of 2018, while only 46,000 rooms are needed to accommodate the current number of tourists.

This makes an oversupply of about 26,000 rooms for now, the report said. The bank made the estimation based on the daily average of 176,000 tourists staying on Jeju.

Jeju's lodging industry posted annual average growth of 13.7 percent in sales from 2006 to 2016. However, the island's lodging industry is currently faced with growing challenges due to the glut of hotel rooms and reduction in the number of tourists, it added.

“The decline of local tourists is nothing to sneeze at,” the industry official said, adding that the Jeju tourist industry has been so far all about cafes and lodgings that popped up everywhere.

“Without storytelling linked to the island, they just chased lucrative businesses. As a result, a large number of tourists may have thought Jeju was a boring and indistinctive destination, leading them to stop returning.”

Amid growing challenges, the Jeju Tourism Organization is set to create “Jeju-like” things.

“Given that food, culture and unique experience programs are catching on of late, it is the key to success to come up with trendy-yet-localized content appealing to tourists,” organization CEO Park Hong-bai said in a media interview.