Chinese tourists and South Korea want to reunite but pandemic fears and rules stand in the way

Chinese tourists eager to visit the popular holiday destination of South Korea jammed travel websites as Beijing announced the imminent lifting of inbound quarantine rules. Bookings soared last month as people welcomed the major easing of a zero-Covid policy that had lasted nearly three years. However, the South Korean government’s decision to limit additional flights and test Chinese arrivals for the coronavirus has dampened the mood among Korean tourism businesses, which want to wait and see if pre-pandemic numbers from China return. Before the pandemic, and Beijing’s diplomatic row with Seoul in 2017 over the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system, more than half the visitors to South Korea would be from China. Beijing unofficially banned group and individual tours to South Korea during the 2017 row, saying the US system’s radar would peer into its territory and threaten its security. Despite a recovery in tourist numbers before the pandemic, Chinese visitors never again returned in droves like they would before the THAAD dispute. Mainland Chinese visitors used to flock to the packed Myeongdong shopping district in Seoul to buy cosmetics, try out street food and shop for clothes. But few could be seen over the recent Christmas and New Year season. Instead, most of the holiday travellers hailed from places that would not quarantine or test them when they returned home, such as Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. A Seoul Tourism Association guide standing in his bright red down jacket uniform to direct visitors in Myeongdong said only a few mainland Chinese visitors had approached him or his colleagues for information, even as tourists poured in from elsewhere. Can K-pop fans, digital nomads turn South Korea into a ‘tourism powerhouse’? But despite the expected rise in the number of mainland Chinese tourists when quarantine restrictions were lifted on Sunday, he said there was no plan to increase the workforce of tourist interpreters. “Even when everyone was not allowed out and everything was closed, we were here,” the tourist guide said on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorised to speak to the media. A business curfew imposed to reduce social interaction during the pandemic had stopped locals from shopping and at the same time few tourists were visiting the country. “Myeongdong was too empty,” said Kim Yong-hoon, a manager at a cosmetics store. He set up shop in October, when many stores in the heavily trafficked shopping district were emptied by the economic downturn. On Wednesday, some shops further down from the main streets of Myeongdong, such as a casual clothing shop and an adult store, both occupying two floors, remained empty and had for-rent signs plastered on their doors. “Chinese tourists will help sales, but it depends on how many will come here,” Kim said, as a handful of tourists from Malaysia browsed his shelves stacked with facial masks, shampoo and skin serum. The most recent figures from the Korea Tourism Organisation are from 2016 and show that 85.5 per cent of mainland Chinese tourists buy perfumes and cosmetics. The average Chinese tourist spent US$3,007 in South Korea in 2017, mostly at duty-free shops, beauty stores and pharmacies, according to a Nielsen survey published in 2018. The keeper of a strawberry stall called Mochi in Myeongdong said Chinese tourists – if they returned – could help sales grow 30 to 50 per cent. He currently makes an average of 1 million won (US$786) a day, mainly from Southeast Asian tourists. “Business has worsened since the THAAD incident,” said the vendor, a university student from China surnamed Chen who declined to give his full name. “With the pandemic, Chinese people can’t come here either. It’s only recently that business in Myeongdong saw an uptick.” In July 2016, nearly three in five tourists arriving in South Korea were from mainland China, according to figures from the Korea Tourism Organisation. Less than a year later in April 2017, Chinese made up only 18.6 per cent of arriving tourists. While Beijing never linked the THAAD dispute with a drop in tourist visas granted for South Korea, THAAD began its deployment in March that year. However, flight booking data suggests Chinese tourists might return in droves. Ctrip, a platform owned by China’s largest online travel agency, Trip.com Group, said search volume for flights from China to South Korea soared 158 per cent from midnight to 1pm on December 27, compared to the same period on the previous day, when China announced it would open its borders and drop all quarantine requirements from January 8. But the effects of South Korea’s additional restrictions on Chinese tourists still lingered, Ctrip said. As of Thursday, South Korea’s disease control agency requires travellers from China to test Covid negative before their flights. South Korea also limited the issuing of short-term 90-day visas and banned additional flights from China, with the volume of flights at just 5 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. Korean Air, the country’s flag carrier, had aimed to boost its China schedule from nine flights per week to 15, but suspended those plans because of the new rules. Amid Covid gloom, China’s tourism industry faces long road to recovery Rival carrier Asiana Airlines also said via email that it had no plans for new routes, because of the official requirements imposed on travellers from China. But even before South Korean authorities had announced new restrictions, tourism companies in the country were cautious about resuming travel to China. A public relations manager for Hana Tour, the largest travel agency in South Korea, said it was difficult to say when tours to China would resume because the company had to “keep an eye on trends” after quarantine rules were lifted on Sunday. Korea’s second largest travel agency, Mode Tour, said this was not the right time to resume programmes to China because of the rising number of Covid-19 cases there, adding it would take three months to prepare for such travel to resume. “When we spoke to the airline companies, it was expected that the number of flights would increase from late March, so we will actively promote travel to China around that time.” Shinsegae Duty Free, a Myeongdong department store popular with Chinese shoppers, said it was difficult to predict the flow of incoming tourists from China. Chen, of the Mochi strawberry stall, said he would watch and wait to see if Chinese tourists returned. “There’s not much to be hopeful for,” he said with a chuckle. “The economy is still doing poorly. If many mainland tourists come here after China opens up, my sales would grow by a lot.”