19,000 Commercial Businesses in Daejeon Close... COVID-19 Impact Hits Old Downtown Area Directly

Provided by Daejeon Sejong Institute

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] In the past two years, approximately 19,000 commercial establishments in Daejeon have closed down. The damage caused by the spread of COVID-19 was mainly concentrated in the old downtown area.

According to the analysis of commercial establishment information by the Small Enterprise and Market Service at the Daejeon Sejong Research Institute on the 12th, the number of commercial establishments in Daejeon decreased from about 86,600 in June 2019 to about 66,900 in June this year. A total of 19,700 local commercial establishments went through the process of closure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Considering that the number of commercial establishments was about 89,000 in March last year, when COVID-19 cases began to appear in the region, the Daejeon Sejong Research Institute estimates that a total of about 22,100 commercial establishments closed by June this year.

During this period, only the sports sector saw an increase of 258 establishments, while all other sectors experienced a decline.

The sector with the largest decrease was retail, with 8,169 establishments closing over the past two years. This was followed by the food service sector with 5,009 closures, academic and educational services with 2,478, lifestyle services with 2,025, and tourism, leisure, and entertainment sectors with 1,330 closures.

In particular, the tourism, leisure, and entertainment sector saw one out of every three existing commercial establishments close, indicating significant damage from COVID-19.

The decrease in commercial establishments was especially prominent in the old downtown area, and Dunsan-dong, considered a regional central commercial district, also did not escape the impact.

The decrease rates were significant in areas such as Eunhaeng and Seonhwa-dong at 49.9%, Yongjeon-dong at 49.2%, Oryu-dong at 47.8%, Daeheung-dong at 46.2%, and Dunsan-dong at 45.8%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.