More Than Half of Japanese Tourists Arriving at Gimhae Airport Use Air Busan

Over the past four months, more than half of all Japanese tourists arriving at Gimhae Airport have used Air Busan.

According to inbound tourism statistics from the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute and Air Busan's own data, from October last year, when travel to Japan fully resumed, to January this year, a total of 34,670 Japanese tourists arrived at Gimhae Airport, accounting for the highest proportion of 35% among foreign tourists arriving at Gimhae Airport.

Among them, 17,641 people (51%) arrived on Air Busan flights. By route, the Fukuoka route recorded the highest number of Japanese passengers at 8,342, followed by Osaka with 7,280 and Tokyo with 1,893 Japanese passengers.

Air Busan plans to actively attract inbound tourists in line with the expansion of international routes, including not only Japanese routes but also Taiwanese routes.

Air Busan A321neoLR.

Air Busan will resume the Busan-Gaoxiong route from the 29th of this month and plans to increase flights on the Busan-Taipei route starting from the 20th of next month.

The Taiwan route had a particularly high proportion of inbound tourists even before COVID-19 due to the Korean Wave, with over 70% of passengers on the Busan-Gaoxiong route being Taiwanese inbound tourists.

The China routes are also expected to see a gradual increase in inbound tourists with the resumption of flights. Air Busan resumed the Busan-Yanji route once a week in line with the lifting of the mandatory PCR test for arrivals from China and the removal of the unified arrival procedure at Incheon Airport for flights from China, effective from the 1st of this month.

This month, preparations are underway to resume the Busan-Qingdao route, and the resumption of routes such as Busan-Zhangjiajie and Xi’an during the summer operation period is also under consideration.

An Air Busan official said, “Compared to competitors, our excellent Japanese route schedules and high recognition in Japan seem to be why many Japanese people use our airline,” adding, “As a regional airline, we will strive to actively attract foreign tourists to contribute to the recovery of the tourism industry and the virtuous cycle of the local economy.”

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