SOUTH KOREA. Lotte Duty Free today welcomed 350 Chinese tourists who arrived on a group tour to Jeju via the Blue Dream Star cruiseship.
This is the first vessel to sail from China to South Korea since the Chinese government lifted the ban on group tours to its near neighbour after more than six years.
The cruise ship departed from Shanghai on 30 August and arrived at Jeju Port at 2pm yesterday.
The 24,782-tonne vessel docked at Jeju Port for eight hours, allowing passengers to take a tour around the island, including a stop at Lotte Duty Free Jeju downtown. Other landmarks visited by the group were Yongduam Rock, Dodu Rainbow Coastal Road, Halla Arboretum Night Market, Dodubong Peak, Woljeongri Beach, Seongeup Folk Village and Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak, also called Sunrise Peak.
Almost half of the tourists from the arriving group spent time shopping at Lotte Duty Free.
Lotte Duty Free Jeju Manager Lee Seong-cheol said: “We have high expectations as up to 20,000 Chinese cruise customers are planning to visit Jeju Island by the end of this year. We will thoroughly prepare to welcome customers.”
As reported, Lotte Duty Free welcomed around 150 Chinese travellers at its Myeong-dong store in Seoul, the first Chinese group tours to visit the store since March 2017.
The cruise line tourists arrived on the New Grand Peace at Pyeongtaek Port on a two-night, three-day tour. The visitors mainly purchased K-Beauty products and local food items.
Citing the Jeju Tourism Organization, the travel retailer said that around 3.06 million foreign visitors travelled to Jeju Island in 2016, during the peak of tourism on the island. Of these visitors, 1.2 million were Chinese cruise line tourists. The most popular attractions were duty free shops and local tourist sites.
The THAAD anti-missile system dispute between China and the Republic of Korea erupted in March 2017, bringing down the number of visitors to just 22,000 in 2018 and to 9,800 in 2022, in a hard blow to the tourism industry in Jeju.
This year, Jeju Island is expecting 47 Chinese cruise ships, including 39 from Shanghai and Tianjin, to arrive at Jeju Port, and a further eight at Seogwipo Gangjeong Port.
For next year, more than 334 cruises, including 264 cruises from China, are scheduled to arrive on Jeju Island, a further boost to the duty free industry. ✈
