Gangwon-do Tops Jeju Island as Place Most Koreans Want to Travel To Domestically

The overtourism of Jeju Island must have gotten really bad in recent years for it to now drop below Gangwon-do as the most perferred domestic travel destination for South Koreans:

Korea’s southern resort island of Jeju is losing its luster as a leading travel spot for Koreans despite the post-pandemic recovery of domestic travel demand, a survey released Tuesday showed.

Instead, Gangwon Province on the eastern mountainous coast of the Korean Peninsula, known to offer similar travel purposes as Jeju, is emerging as a trending destination.

According to Consumer Insight’s monthly report Tuesday, Koreans’ interest in travel to Jeju Island stood at 29 percent in July, marking the lowest since the survey started in 2016.

“Interest” refers to the percentage of respondents who said their desire to visit a specific destination has grown compared to the year before.

After dropping 9 percentage points from 41 percent to 32 percent in May, the figure fell again by 4 percentage points from 33 percent to 29 percent from June to July. (…….)

However, the downward trend for Jeju is exceptional. Interest plunged by 18 percentage points between 2022 and 2023 and continued to fall from January to July this year from 41 percent to 29 percent.

The drop in Gangwon Province was relatively small, with decreasing by 12 percentage points from 55 percent to 43 percent during the same period.

Korea Times

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