JEJU ISLAND — Despite the summer travel season reaching its peak, vendors on Jeju Island are voicing concerns about the bleak economic outlook, driven by a noticeable drop in tourist numbers to Korea’s famed southern getaway.
“People do visit a lot because it’s vacation season, but no one opens their wallets. Business is pretty much the same, gloomier than a few years ago before the pandemic,” a merchant operating a souvenir shop at Jeju’s Dongmun Market told The Korea Times on Aug. 7, expressing concerns over sluggish business.
Even at Jeju’s popular tourist destinations, the atmosphere was relatively calm for peak season. Occasional conversations in Japanese and Chinese indicated the presence of international tourists, but the bustling scenes of the past years were absent.
A weekday lunch visit to Sukseongdo, one of Jeju’s renowned black pork restaurants, required only a 15-minute wait without a reservation. This was a stark contrast with the situation a few years ago, when long lines were the norm for the restaurant’s famous black pork belly.
The diminished vibrancy was also visible at Dongmun Market. Despite the enthusiasm of vendors dancing along to EDM while grilling lobsters, the crowds gathered for the scene were relatively 한국을 sparse.
A young vendor selling Jeju’s specialty, “omegi tteok” (millet and mugwort rice cake), noted that he has been noticing more Chinese tourists compared to Koreans lately.
“I hear more Chinese while working. It feels like the ratio is almost 50-50 now. We’re even considering hiring someone who can speak Chinese,” he said.
According to the statistics from the Jeju provincial government, the number of domestic tourists visiting the southern island this year saw a 6.2 percent decrease in January compared to the same period previous year, with similar declines continuing through the year.
As of Aug. 10, the cumulative number of tourists stood at 7.31 million, a 6.5 percent decrease from the previous year’s 7.81 million, making it challenging to expect a dramatic turnaround.