<Anchor> Since



foreign travel is blocked, many people have been visiting Jeju Island instead.

As the speed of vaccination is accelerating, expectations are growing that I will be able to visit other countries during this summer vacation after a long time, but there are still many variables.



This content was covered by reporter Kim Min-pyo.



<Reporter>



Even before the beach opens, people who enjoy surfing are floating in the sea.



The scenery that could only be seen during the full-fledged vacation season has accelerated this year.



[Lee Ji-won/Surfing Instructor: Was it last weekend?

The beach is full.

This place is full, but that was the kind of sight you could feel in July or August last week (there was)]




The number of tourists visiting Jeju this year has increased by 18% compared to last year.



In particular, the increase has been remarkable since last March, when the third corona epidemic was over.



[Wi Jae-chung / Pension Owner: The things marked with this dot are fully booked. The month of April is really full, and the month of May is also full like this.]



However, since most of the small-scale individual tours are due to the ban on gatherings, the companies that cater to group travelers are still Boritgogae.



[Kim Nam-jin / Head of Jeju Tourism Association: Group tours, chartered buses, and interpreters will be suspended as a chain of group tours is not available.]



Among Jeju travelers, many people choose to travel abroad instead.



After the government announced that it would allow group travel for people vaccinated from next month, the movement to preempt the previously suppressed travel demand is accelerating.



The European package tour product, which was introduced at a home shopping mall on the 6th, generated more than 20 billion won in sales in one hour.



However, there are many prospects that overseas travel will not be activated immediately.



This is because, at the beginning of the implementation of the so-called 'travel bubble', there is no choice but to limit the number of flights and the number of arrivals, and there are many variables such as mutant viruses.



Because of these variables, a foreign consulting firm predicted that even by the end of 2023, it would be difficult for tourist demand to recover to the pre-COVID level.



There is also concern that the foundation of the domestic travel industry itself is collapsing due to the prolonged Corona crisis.



It is known that an office building will be built on the site of the Millennium Hilton Seoul Hotel at the foot of Namsan Mountain, and some hotels are being converted into residential facilities.



Many of the three-star hotels in Myeong-dong, Seoul, which have been closed for over a year, seem to be on sale.



[Han Jin-Soo/Professor of Hotel Management at Kyunghee University: The wealthy and the poor will appear greatly (I think). Many people now say that the hotel industry will be revived once the corona is over, but I do not see that.]



33.5% of overseas travel companies are in business There are many places that are seriously thinking about giving up the travel business while they are on hiatus.



Even if the vaccination rate rises, it does not seem easy to quickly restore the foundation of the travel industry, which has been weakened by the prolonged corona crisis.



[Jo Il-sang / Hana Tour Team Leader: Regular routes and such are almost gone or reduced, and it will take quite some time to normalize once again.]



[Hwang Jin-young / Travel agency representative: Questions about whether we can return to the travel business again? I'll take this thread.]



(VJ: Minshin Ahn)