Korean Yonhap News Agency (YNA) recently reported that along with the booming of Chinese tourists travelling to Korean, the number of flights between China and Korea has exceeded those between Korea and Japan already.
KOREA – According to the statistics, there were 8495 China-Korea flights setting off from January to April in 2013, increasing 18.8% year-by-year; while the number of flights between Korea and Japan was 6307 during the same period, showing only a 5.3% year-by-year growth by contrast. Obvious trends and opportunities are seen by Korean aviation industry that China again becomes a strategically vital land. Therefore, most Korean airline companies are now turning their attentions focusing on Chinese market.
By far, Asiana Airlines is leading the way by opening 31 routes between Korea and 22 cities in China and besides that, they are developing more products to match Chinese tourists’needs on shopping travel and charter flights. Apart from those big companies, budget airlines are also on the way of splitting a share, for instance, Air Busan indicated that they were opening regular flights heading to Shangdong and Hainan Provinces instantly and same actions have been seen as well from companies such as Jeju Air and Jin Air.
Specifically, the growth of lines between China and Jeju Island is ranking first among all the routes which mainly due to the visa-free policy of Chinese tourists travelling to Jeju Island applied since 2008. Benefited from this case, Government of Busan declared on 29th April 2013 that from middle of May, group travellers to Jeju Island transferring via Busan Gimhae International Airport can enjoy a visa-free 72 hours’stay in Busan, Ulsan, Gyeongnam, Kyungpook, etc. and continue their journey to Jeju afterwards.
A similar policy was launched by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Republic of Korea (MCST) who announced officially that from 1st May, group tourists transferring via Incheon International Airport would have a visa-free 72 hours’ stay in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi-do areas.
