[멈춰선 제주]① Old Baozen Street, where people were cut off…The area around an empty shopping street is a’ghost city’

Input 2021.02.05 12:00

Jeju Island is the southernmost island in Korea and the only special self-governing province. As it has been a year since the coronavirus infection (Corona 19) situation that stopped the world in earnest in Korea, the economy of Jeju Island has also been unable to avoid its impact. Vacancy is overflowing in the commercial area where tourist special has disappeared, and tourism companies are fastening their belts. At the same time, there are voices in the tourism industry that it is an opportunity to advance Jeju’s tourism industry, which has been limited to’cost-performance travel’ and’nature travel’. How should Jeju Island prepare for the’Post Corona (after Corona)’? Chosun Biz analyzes the current status and blueprint of the Jeju tourism industry through four articles. [편집자주]

“If it’s normal, it’s not open in the city, but there aren’t many customers these days, so it’s all waiting at the airport. I’ve been doing a taxi tour business for tourists in Southeast Asia for over 10 years, but since March last year (due to a coronavirus infection), it was completely cut off… After that, the restaurants and bars are closed, so there are no Korean customers taking taxis.”

The taxi driver I met at Jeju Airport on the 29th of last month said that before the coronavirus infection (Corona 19), a foreign tourist taxi was driven for 20-25 days at an hourly fee of about 20,000 won. As the domestic quarantine level rises due to Corona 19, neither locals nor domestic tourists go around the city in the evening, so it is difficult to do business no matter how much you travel around the city.

A cold breeze was blowing in the downtown Jeju area, which was overflowing with foreign tourists. Yeondong Nuuemaru Street, the center of Jeju City, was busy even on Friday evening. Many of the restaurants with large pictures of food and menus in English and Chinese, and many restaurants with Chinese signs were turned off. There were also open restaurants and cafes, but it was difficult to find customers.

At one time, this street was called’Baozen Street’ and it was a shopping street that was crowded with Chinese tourists. This former rodeo street in Jeju City was built into a car-free street in 2010. The following year, more than 11,000 employees of the Baozen Group, a Chinese health care product company, visited on a reward tour and transformed into a tourist destination aimed at foreigners.

The street, which used to be the center of clothing stores, restaurants, and pubs that locals visited until now, was replaced with cosmetics stores and restaurants tailored to the tastes of Chinese tourists. The name Baozen Street was given as a sign of appreciation for large-scale tourism by Chinese companies at the provincial level.

There was also a cold air in the shopping districts around Shingwang-ro and Noyeon-ro, the outer streets of Nuuemaru Street. As the center of fashion brand stores, editing shops, and cosmetics stores, the shopping district was vacant in two or three buildings. The first-floor shopping street located at the crossroads and convenience stores near the downtown duty-free shops were also closed. It was called’Myeongdong of Jeju Island’.

An employee of a restaurant in a business hotel near Nuuemaru Street said, “Before the corona crisis, even a small cosmetic store around this area made a ridiculous amount of 5 million won in sales per day. There were so many foreign tourists that only the right to the mall rose to 300 million won.” 19 As the situation has continued for more than a year, recently, the right to the mall has been in a state of stagnation to the extent that the right amount of money has been 0 won.”

◇ The number of tourists in Jeju is as high as 8 years ago. No money is spent on lodging and shopping in Jeju.

According to the National Statistical Office, Jeju Island’s population was 670,000 as of January this year. The population is smaller than most cities in Gyeonggi-do, such as Ulsan (1,130,000), which has the lowest population among metropolitan cities, as well as Suwon (1.18 million), Goyang (1.80,000), Yongin (1,700,000), and Seongnam (94 million).

This is the background in which Jeju Island’s dependence on the tourism industry is inevitably increased. Looking at the most recent statistics, the proportion of total added value by industry in Jeju Island in 2018, the accommodation and restaurant business (6.4%), culture and other service businesses (4.5%), and wholesale and retail businesses (7.4%) that constitute the tourism industry accounted for 22% of the total. Occupy. Secondary industries such as manufacturing are rarely developed.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, Jeju Island’s tourism industry was on the rise. Each year, the number of tourists has increased to double digits. According to statistics from the Jeju Island Tourism Association, the number of visitors from 8.74 million in 2011 doubled in 2016, only five years later. An average of 40,000 people a day went to Jeju Island. The number of Chinese tourists plunged due to the THAAD (high-altitude missile system) conflict with China in 2017, but the vacant seats began to be filled by Southeast Asian tourists and locals such as Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand.

The problem started when the sky road was blocked by the Corona 19 incident. Last year, the number of foreign tourists decreased by almost 90% compared to the previous year. The cessation of the’no visa system’ in February last year also hurt. It was introduced in 2002 to attract foreign tourists as a system that allowed only citizens of 175 countries to stay in Jeju Island for 30 days without a visa (visa). This measure takes into account the situation in Jeju Island, where the proportion of Chinese tourists is large and medical facilities such as senior hospitals are insufficient. The number of domestic tourists decreased by 26%. Depending on the stage of quarantine, such as strengthening social distancing, the number of incoming visitors fluctuated.

According to the data on the amount of card used by Jeju Island, Jeju Tourism Organization, and Shinhan Card until December last year, consumption in the Jeju area was 6.26 trillion won, down 6.5% from 2019. The spending of Jeju residents only decreased by 1.6%, but the consumption of domestic tourists (-3.7%) and foreign tourists (-69.4%) decreased significantly. Even if I visited Jeju Island, I chose to go to the mountains or the beach or camp instead of hotels and shopping streets. It means that tourists who visited Jeju Island did not spend as much money as before. Consumption in the lodging and travel industry (-24.4%) declined the most, followed by fashion and miscellaneous goods (-17.2%), culture and leisure (-7.7%), and food and beverages (-7.5%).

◇ Hotels and duty-free shops that have disappeared from tourists… Jeju Tourism Organization also withdrew from downtown duty-free shops

This impact was reflected in the performance of companies in the lodging, duty-free and casino industries that support Jeju Island’s tourism industry. According to the Korea Duty Free Shop Association, until the Corona 19 incident, about 45% of domestic duty-free shop visitors were foreigners, but now it has dropped by 95%. Domestic duty-free shop visitors also decreased by nearly 80%.

The downtown duty free shops in Jeju Island, which foreign tourists visited by hundreds of people a day, are currently closed. On weekdays, it operates only between 2 and 6 pm on some floors with luxury fashion brands and cosmetics. It is closed on weekends. Duty-free shops are in a situation where they reduce labor costs through a four-day system and paid leave.

A deputy manager of a downtown duty-free shop in Jeju City said, “With the suspension of international flights on Jeju Island, the number of customers who can use duty-free shops has decreased. Before Corona 19, if an average of 500-700 people visited each day, only 50-60 people recently.” As usual, about 1,000 people should work, including employees and sales staff at stores, but now some brands temporarily suspend duty-free shops and dispatch employees to other local stores.”

The downtown duty-free shop operated by the Jeju Tourism Organization was also withdrawn. After the THAAD incident in 2017, the company closed the JTO duty-free shop in Jeju Shinhwa World in April last year when the business contracted until the Corona 19 incident. The space used by JTO Duty Free is still empty.

The situation is similar for lodging companies such as hotels and resorts. According to the COVID-19 prevention guidelines, only two-thirds (66%) of all rooms can be operated, but due to the decrease in the number of tourists, reservations do not take up that much.

Jeju Shinhwa World, a large-scale complex resort with more than 2,000 rooms, is on paid leave by shortening working hours or receiving government employment maintenance subsidies for 30% of all employees. Jeju Shinhwa World, which has a five-star hotel, casino, food and beverage industry, and theme park, employs 1,500 people.

An official from Jeju Shinhwa World said, “Even considering that it is the off-season, the number of tourists has decreased so that the current (room) reservation rate is only 20-30%.” “The reservation rate in the off-season drops to around 10%,” he said.

An official from the tourism industry who requested anonymity said, “As the corona crisis is prolonged, Jeju Island’s tourism industry is in a situation where it is difficult to maintain employment, so tailored support from the government and improvement of regulations are urgent.” “I look forward to reopening international flights, etc. by preparing immigration measures so that even businessmen with vaccination confirmation certificates can enter Jeju Island.”