Have you been to Jeju

Island?
How many times?
Jeju in Efforts to Revive
Tourism
The Jeju provincial government is rolling up its sleeves to revive
the tourism industry on the resort island amid declining Chinese
tourist numbers due to tensions caused by the deployment of a
Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery here.

The island government will hold massive bargain sales

throughout April where some 630 businesses will take part.

It will open the gates to a total of 28 public tourist destinations

on the island for free. Visitors can also enjoy a 5 to 65 percent
discount at hotels, tourist attractions, souvenir shops, golf
courses and restaurants.

The number of Chinese tourists to Jeju from March 1 to 19

dropped 44.2 percent on-year after Beijing banned "zero-dollar"
shopping tours to Korea in retaliation for the THAAD
deployment.

The daily average number of Chinese visitors fell from upwards

of 3,000 to 1,000. All 2,280 charter buses in Jeju are now
practically at a standstill as Chinese tour groups, including
But more domestic tourists are visiting Jeju as fewer
Chinese tourists means more airline tickets are
available. During about the first 20 days of March,
573,500 domestic tourists visited Jeju, up from
515,000 over the same period last year. The average
booking rate of Gimpo-Jeju flights has reached 90
percent.

Although the number of Chinese tour groups has

declined, more individual tourists are coming from
China.

"The number of individual Chinese tourists has

increased from 500 to 1,000 a day. They account for
some 90 percent of all our sales," a staffer of a duty-
free shop in downtown Jeju said.
 How important is tourism in your
country?
Do you prefer tourism package tours
or do you prefer to plan your own
vacations? Why?
Should a government try to improve
domestic tourism or try to attract
international tourists instead? Why?