SEOUL, KOREA - Most of the foreign tourists who visited Jeju Island are Chinese. According to the Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Tourism Association, Chinese tourists accounted for 63.8 percent, or 459,062, in total foreign tourists (657,589) who visited Jeju Island during the January-May period of this year. The figure represents an increase of 59.1 percent compared to 288,583 a year ago.
In contrast, the number of Japanese tourists who came to Jeju Island continued to remain low at 58,140 due to a decline in yen's value plus the cooling off of the Korea-Japan relation. This figure is down 28 percent from 80,698 a year before.
As the Jeju tourism market is polarized between China and Japan, airliner operations are reorganized towards focusing on the demand from China.
