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Agence France-Presse

Chinese tourist numbers to South Korea plunged by two-thirds in April after Beijing banned tour groups over Seoul’s deployment of a US missile defence system, official statistics showed.
Beijing imposed a boycott from March 15 on Chinese tour groups visiting the South in a spat over the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system.
Washington and Seoul say it is purely to defend against threats from nuclear-armed North Korea, but Beijing fears it could undermine its own nuclear deterrent and has reacted with fury, imposing a series of measures seen as economic retaliation.
April was the first full month of the ban, and saw a total of 227,811 Chinese tourists visiting South Korea, down 66.6 per cent on the 682,318 a year earlier, according to the state-run Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO).
Chinese companies join boycott of South Korean retailer Lotte over missile shield plans
Total visitor numbers were down 27.2 per cent from last year to 1.07 million, KTO said, blaming a “huge decline in Chinese visitors due to China’s ban on tours to South Korea”.
The tumbling figures have taken a heavy toll on duty-free shops in South Korea.
Sales to Chinese visitors were down 40 per cent at Lotte Duty Free, a Lotte spokesman said previously, adding that they usually make up 70 per cent of the company’s overall sales.
The South Korean retail giant has been trying to make up for the loss but has been unsuccessful so far, he said, adding: “I’m not hopeful of a recovery anytime soon.”
Lotte, the South’s fifth largest conglomerate, has had to shut down dozens of its stores in China due to boycott calls after the group agreed to provide a golf course in South Korea as a site for THAAD.
Holiday hush as Chinese tourists shun South Korean resort island amid THAAD missile shield row
Its accumulated losses as a result are reportedly expected to hit US$1 billion in the first half of this year alone.
South Korea has been struggling to fill the gap with promotional campaigns to attract more visitors from other countries, mainly from Japan and those in Southeast Asia.
But Japanese travellers have also been put off by “negative media reports” about rising regional tensions over the North, KTO said, with their numbers falling 5.4 per cent year-on-year in April.


South Korea tourist numbers plummet by two-thirds after China boycott

A South Korean guide directing tourists in the popular Myeongdong shopping area of Seoul. Photo: AFP

China demands immediate halt to THAAD missile system now ‘operational’ in South Korea

A THAAD interceptor launched during a successful intercept test at an undisclosed location in the US. Photo: EPA

FILE PHOTOS: A combination photo shows a Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) handout of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un released on May 10, 2016, and Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump posing for a photo after an interview with Reuters in his office in Trump Tower, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S., May 17, 2016. REUTERS/KCNA handout via Reuters/File Photo & REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo ATTENTION EDITORS - THE KCNA IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY. REUTERS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THIS IMAGE. NO THIRD PARTY SALES. NOT FOR USE BY REUTERS THIRD PARTY DISTRIBUTORS. SOUTH KOREA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN SOUTH KOREA.

The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is pictured about 60 kilometers south of Tsushima Island in Japan's Nagasaki Prefecture in this photo taken from a Kyodo News airplane on April 29, 2017. Carl Vinson and three other warships were heading to the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

epa05938239 A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) launcher sits at a golf course in Seongju, about 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, South Korea, 01 May 2017. On the same day, South Korea ruled out renegotiation of the cost for the deployment of the US missile defense system, responding to pressure from the Donald Trump administration to share the financial burden. EPA/YONHAP SOUTH KOREA OUT - BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE

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