Jeju-do is working hard to attract high-value Chinese tourists in response to the full opening of China’s overseas tourism market.

Jeju Special Self-Governing Province is pursuing PR and marketing in full swing to attract Chinese tourists as direct flights between Jeju and Beijing resumed on the first of last month.

As issuing of short-term visas for visiting Korea resumed and requirements for aircraft departing from China having to land at Incheon Airport were lifted, market conditions are gradually recovering such as sequentially resuming direct flights between Jeju and China. Therefore, the province’s strategy is to actively respond to the full opening of China’s overseas tourism market.

The province’s long-term strategy is to attract 5 million foreign tourists annually. As of April 23, there were 88,875 foreign tourists, comprising 15,656 Chinese tourists, 5,256 Japanese tourists, and 67,963 from other nations. Though the number of tourists is not very high, this is still a ten-fold increase of Chinese tourists that numbered 1,509 in 2022.

As of March 28, nine regular international routes in six countries from and to Jeju and 82 flights are serviced weekly. Routes that are being serviced or are slated to be serviced with China are Xi’an (Jin Air), Shanghai(Spring Airlines, Juneyao Airlines, Jin Air, China Eastern Airlines), Nanjing (Juneyao Airlines), Beijing (Korean Air, JEJU Air), and Hong Kong (Hong Kong Express). In the case of the Beijing route, Korean Air is scheduled to service four flights a week from May 1 and JEJU Air 3 flights a week from June 12.

Accordingly, PR activities using Chinese influencers on famous Chinese social media sites such as Xiaohongshu (popular among women between 25 and 35), Douyin (Chinese TikTok), and Weibo are being carried out to reinforce PR for Chinese people in their 20s and 30s that have become a key consumption group for tourism in China.

In particular, a familiarization tour program was carried out with Spring Airlines of China by inviting influencers in link with the resumption of the Jeju-Shanghai flight route, and it was followed by a familiarization tour with travel-related influencers together with the Korea Tourism Organization Shanghai branch. In addition, offline PR and events were also conducted for consumers in China.

At the Korea Plaza in Guangzhou, China, which is a Korean culture and tourism PR space, the ‘Jeju Tourism Month in Guangzhou’ event was held by preparing a Jeju tourism PR zone that introduced new tourist destinations of Jeju, unique experiences, and filming areas of K-pop in Jeju, while also having a Jeju tourism seminar.

Furthermore, projects for restoring networks between the tourism businesses of Jeju and China that were stopped due to COVID-19 will also be pursued. For example, as direct flights between Jeju and Beijing resumed, travel agencies and travel media in Beijing specializing in popular products purchased when visiting Jeju were invited to introduce the newly changed tourism destinations of Jeju. Moreover, B2B Travel Mart for the Chinese travel industry, Jeju travel industry, and relevant businesses will be held to assist in recovering networks in the industry.