Chinjing Trip, vice president of the dotcom group, surged 357% after Korea implemented visa-free last month, popularity of “Friday off work → travel to China” “expand product cooperation with South Korean companies.”
“The tourism market in South Korea and China is recovering fast.”
Chin Jing (photo), vice president of TripCom Group (Chinese name Xiecheng), China’s largest online travel agency, said in an interview jointly conducted by Mail Business and Global Times, “The visa-free policies of the two countries are greatly boosting tourism demand.”
“As the convenience of travel improves, more tourists, including middle-aged people, are expected to flock,” he said. “Especially after Korea’s visa-free implementation, Chinese tourists’ group travel orders to Korea soared 357 percent.” The main destinations are Seoul, Jeju, and Busan in that order.
“The number of Korean tourists’ orders for Chinese tourism products surged by more than 200% at one point,” he said. “Going to China after work on Friday became popular on Korean social networking services.” At the same time, the demand for group and theme (art and family) travel is expanding, as well as promoting the growth of the MICE market.
According to TripCom, orders for Chinese tourism products by Koreans increased 131% year-on-year until the 11th of last month after Chinese authorities announced a temporary visa-free measure for Koreans in November last year. During the same period, orders for airline tickets and hotels also soared 90 percent and 163 percent, respectively.
On the contrary, after the Korean authorities announced a plan to implement temporary visa-free measures for Chinese group tourists in early August, Chinese demand for Korean tourism products is also rapidly increasing. Since then, orders have increased 31% compared to the same period last year, making it the third most popular destination for Chinese people to travel abroad.
TripCom believes that the visa-free policy between the two countries will serve as a long-term boon, and plans to expand cooperation with Korean companies to jointly develop themed and customized tourism products. Vice President Chin said, “We will provide multi-lingual services and payment convenience, and satisfy customer needs by developing tourism products that combine various themes.”
Until last year, demand for tourism between Korea and China shrank significantly. This is because travel and business travel demand has rarely recovered even after the “COVID-19 lockdown” ended. At the time, experts pointed out that the cold Korea-China relationship has greatly reduced the incentive for people from the two countries to visit each other.
This trend is gradually changing this year. Since the inauguration of the Lee Jae-myung administration in June, expectations have grown that the foreign policy of “one side of the United States” will change, and Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju later this month.
Beijing correspondent Song Kwang-seop
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