No rebound seen for Chinese travel to South Korea

South Korea is unlikely to see a rebound in tourism from the Chinese mainland until the country appropriately handles a US missile defense system and the situation on the Korean Peninsula fundamentally changes, analysts said.

Since March last year, the number of mainland tourists visiting South Korea has decreased dramatically, as has the number of South Koreans visiting China, Park Yong-hwan, senior deputy director of the China Team at the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), said in an email sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.

Last year, 4.16 million Chinese tourists visited South Korea, down about 48 percent from 2016, Park added. Growth “this year is expected to be slightly higher than the previous year due to the base effect,” Park said, noting that nothing has changed since March last year.

Local governments in South Korea are now promoting “peace themed” tours along the border with North Korea amid the continuing peace overtures between the two countries, the Korea Times reported on Monday.

In partnership with the KTO, Gangwon Province, which is located at the border of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), launched a tour for around 50 representatives of travel agencies on Monday. “Most foreign tourists who visit the DMZ are European and American, and not many Chinese tourists visit the DMZ,” Park said.

Some major travel agencies are still cautious about South Korean tour packages. “It all depends on the future situation,” Xu Xiaolei, manager of marketing at China’s CYTS Tours Holding Co, told the Global Times.

He noted that officials from Gangwon came to visit the agency last week to talk about further cooperation. But more time is needed to see what happens on

the Korean peninsula.

Major travel agencies in Chie, na, for example Ctrip, have no plans to explore business opportunities in “peace-themed” a company PR representative told the Global Times

Still, the number of Chinese visitors to South Korea slightly rebounded in recent months. In April, 366,604 visitors from the Chinese mainland visited the country, up 60.9 percent year-on the year, data from the KTO showed.

At the peak of China-South Korea tourism, millions of Chinese visited South Korea every year. The deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Area De) fense (THAAD) system caused significant losses for the industry which has also been affected by nuclear shadows on the peninsula said Liang Qidong, vice

president of the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences.

“The interference of US forces jeopardized Sino-South Korea ties, including business relations,” he told the Global Times. Both the THAAD dispute and nuclear threats have not been appropriately handled so far, and this hinders the growth of the tourism sector, he said.

“As long as THAAD is not dismantled, the situation won’t fundamentally change for the better,” Liang added.

Senior officials from North Korea and the US are expected to hold discussions to decide on whether to press ahead with a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12, the Yonhap News Agency reported.