[News Terms] The Return of 'Youke' and 'Sanke'

'Youke (游客)' is a Chinese term meaning traveler or tourist. It is the Chinese pronunciation of the Chinese characters '游客'.

Korean media use the term to refer to 'Chinese tourists visiting Korea,' and recently, they distinguish between group tourists as 'Youke' and individual tourists visiting Korea as 'Sanke (散客)'.

Chinese tourists are sightseeing at Namsangol Hanok Village located in Jung-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Asia Economy DB]

However, the National Institute of the Korean Language recommends replacing 'Youke' or 'Sanke' with 'Chinese tourists' or 'Chinese visitors.'

Sanke mainly refers to the millennial generation born from the 1980s to the early 2000s who consume according to trends. Unlike group tours, they visit Korea with family or friends for shopping and sightseeing. They travel freely rather than on package tours, use smartphones to search for information and plan their trips. They also prefer shopping at department stores over duty-free shops and purchase clothing, cosmetics, and food featured in Korean dramas or movies influenced by Hallyu content.

On the 10th, the China National Tourism Administration announced the allowance of Chinese group tours to 78 countries worldwide, including Korea, the United States, Japan, Germany, and Mexico. Regarding the background of permitting group tours, it explained, "Since the pilot resumption of overseas group tours for Chinese citizens earlier this year, the overseas tourism industry has been operating smoothly and orderly, playing a positive role in promoting tourism exchange and cooperation."

The Chinese government stopped issuing group visas to Korea in March 2017 as a retaliatory measure after Korea deployed THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense). The lifting of group tour restrictions this time comes after six years and five months. After abandoning the zero-COVID policy, China lifted group travel bans to 20 countries, including the UAE, Thailand, and Indonesia, in February, and in March, extended the same to 40 countries, including France and Italy. Korea had repeatedly been excluded from the list of countries with lifted travel bans but is included this time.

Related domestic industries such as tourism, distribution, cosmetics, and food are busily preparing to welcome Youke who will flock to Korea again.

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