Chinese and Japanese tourists rank first and second each year in the number of people visiting Korea, but they have different reasons for making the trip and show different travel patterns.
According to a survey by the Korea Tourism Organization, 42.4 per cent of Japanese tourists who came to Korea last year picked “food and gourmet experience” as their main reason for visiting Korea, while 33.4 per cent of Chinese visitors said they came for “shopping”.
Chinese tourists spent much more than those from Japan during their stay: an average visitor from China spent US$1,887, more than double that of Japanese travellers who spent U$791.
Their travel patterns also differed, as Japanese tourists tend to make frequent short visits, while Chinese travellers stayed longer in the country and visited less frequently.
The surveyed Japanese tourists visited Korea over 6.1 times on average, higher than the Chinese tourists’ four times. But Chinese tourists stayed for an average of 8.2 days, more than two-times longer compared to Japan’s 3.9 days. About 70 per cent of Japanese and 66.5 per cent of Chinese sightseers were repeat visitors who have visited Korea at least twice. Both Chinese and Japanese tourists picked Seoul as their favourite Korean city.
When allowed to choose multiple answers, 73 per cent of Japanese visitors chose Seoul as the best city to visit in Korea, and 79.1 per cent of Chinese visitors thought the same. However, for their second-best destination, Japanese travellers picked Busan and Chinese tourists preferred Jeju Island.
Nearly half, or 47.9 per cent of the Japanese visitors found information about Korea from their country’s internet sites and mobile applications, but 52.3 per cent of Chinese holidaymakers found information through friends, colleagues and relatives.
More than 95 per cent of Chinese holidaymakers were satisfied with their visit to Korea, showing higher levels of satisfaction compared to the 86.4 per cent of those from Japan.
In 2018, 15.3 million foreigners visited Korea, up by 15.1 per cent from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Of them, Chinese visitors ranked first in terms of number, 4.78 million, followed by Japanese holidaymakers, 2.94 million.
Scmp