Jeju Island's inbound tourism to surge in 2024 with increased air, sea routes

Visitors enjoy panoramic views around the grassy plateau of Gunsan Oreum in Seogwipo, Jeju Island, Wednesday. Yonhap

The southern resort island of Jeju expects to see a surge in the number of international travelers next year with the expansion of air and sea routes connecting it with the cities of other countries in Asia.

According to the Korea Airports Corp. (KAC) and tourism industry, Friday, the island will have 148 international flights per week in January next year.

The number has consistently increased from 20 flights, which was tallied during the winter season in 2022 after the tourist industry was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, to 123 as of December this year, nearing pre-pandemic levels tallied in 2019, which stood at 181 flights.

Starting this month, China’s Spring Airlines will launch seven weekly round trips to Beijing and three trips to Nanjing. Also, the airline will increase the number of regular flights to Hangzhou with seven trips per week, while also resuming chartered flights seven times a week.

In January next year, Jeju Air will launch seven weekly regular flights between Jeju and Beijing, while Eastar Jet will begin three flights per week between Jeju and Taipei. The chartered flight to Macau will also resume twice a week.

The island expects to receive more travelers from China and neighboring Chinese-speaking countries. The chartered flights connecting Jeju with Chinese cities, including Guangzhou, Ningbo, Tsingtao and Jinan, as well as Taiwan’s Taipei and Kaohsiung, will resume by March next year.

Cruise tourism will return to Jeju as well with more routes.

According to the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, 25 cruise ships from 25 global shipping companies are set to embark 98 times to Jeju port and 106 times to Seogwipo port next year, making a total of 204 trips. The figure is more than double that of this year’s 77 trips.

China’s Adora Cruise will make 39 trips with a 135,000-ton mega cruise ship to Seogwipo next year, while also bringing an 85,000-ton ship that will visit the island 39 times.

Jeju received 628,495 foreign visitors between January and November this year, which is nearly a nine-fold jump from the 70,786 figure in the same period last year.