South Korea Most Popular Tourism Destination for Chinese This Lunar New Year
If it seems like that there is many more Chinese visiting South Korea it is because there are:
South Korea was ranked the most popular overseas destination for Chinese people during their weeklong national holiday that started this week, a Chinese government survey showed Wednesday.
About 5.19 million Chinese are expected to travel abroad for the Lunar New Year holiday season, up 10 percent from the same period last year, and 15.6 percent of them are predicted to visit South Korea, according to the survey by China’s National Tourism Administration.
Also in the top five were Thailand (13.9 percent), Japan (8.7 percent), Australia (4.4 percent) and Singapore (3.6 percent).
“This year, the number of tourists continues to grow, due to an easier visa application process for Chinese passport holders, and the depreciation of foreign currency against the yuan,” it said.
Fueled by a growing popularity of Korean pop music and TV dramas and a gradual appreciation of the Chinese currency, the number of Chinese visitors to South Korea soared 46 percent from a year ago to 6.33 million people in 2014, according to South Korean government data. [Yonhap]
There are just too many of them! I can’t breath!
How does one apply to be a Tom? Is there a website you sign up at?
The old Tom was more interesting, and he was all about how wonderful China is, and how South Korea needs to ally themselves with China over the United States.
Now you appear, and seem to hate China. You are causing confusion.
Change your name to Tom, Mk2 or something. We have standards around here.
That’s the danger of paying internet shills. Once the money stops they go after you with the same fervor they once used for your cause.
I’ve done some reading on this for the last couple of days now, and read some startling articles that the Chinese tourism to South Korea is now just beginning. The sheer number of mainland Chinese that visited Hong Kong last year for instance, numbered 40 million. That tiny Hong Kong took in that many tourists from mainland tells you how much of a tourism power China possesses currently. This has given rise to problems in Hong Kong, where the residents complain that the rude mainlanders don’t have any manners, buying up everything leading to shortages of daily necessities, and generally destroying the standard of living. With problems and clashes between the residents and the Chinese tourists becoming a huge headache to Chinese officials, the Chinese government is now trying to encourage its citizens to travel to other destinations to relieve pressure on Hong Kong. The PRC citizens of today are a different generation compared to the past generations in that flush with cash, they do not save as much compared to the prior generations. With China racking up almost $3.5 trillion in foreign reserves, the Chinese government wants to encourage its citizens to go abroad and spend some of that money. The result is a surge of Chinese tourists throughout the globe. And the country that benefits the most is South Korea. South Korea is the most favoured destination for the Chinese travellers. South Korea attracted 6.3 million mainlanders last year, and the South Korean government is expecting that number will nearly double to 10 million Chinese visitors by end of next year. These numbers can easily multiply if South Korea becomes another favored destination like Hong Kong is currently. So it will be very interesting to see what the future will look like when South Korea receives 40 million Chinese visitors, making daily shortages of milk, diapers, and so on, a new phenomenon. Right now, South Koreans for the most part, look on apathetically at the Chinese tourists, but I can only imagine the time when it will lead to clashes between the Korean locals and the visitors.
Have anyone notice that there seems to heck of a lot more signs in Chinese writings all over the main streets, as there used to be? There used to be none, but now you can see them much more commonly. There are also several Chinatowns in Seoul as well. Not the sanitized ones in Incheon, but real ones that are mushrooming out of Chinese immigrants and Joseonjoks.
And all all of the history dramas seem to be about killing Japanese or remembering Koryo’s glory…
Wait. That’s the way the history dramas have always been…