"Even at Half Price for Overseas Travel, I Won't Go to Jeju-do"…Travelers Turn Away Amid Overcharging Controversy

Consumer Insight Reveals Travel Expenses by Destination
"Jeju Fails to Respond to Ultra-Frugal Travel Market Situation"

An analysis has emerged indicating that more people believe the cost of traveling to Jeju Island is not even half the price of overseas travel. At the same time, there is criticism that Jeju tourism has not escaped the perception of being overpriced and is inadequately responding to the ultra-tight travel market conditions.

According to the weekly travel behavior and planning survey conducted by Consumer Insight, a travel research specialist agency, from 2015 onwards (targeting 500 people weekly, totaling 26,000 annually), the average expenditure per traveler over the past 10 months from early this year to last month was 528,000 KRW for Jeju Island and 1,157,000 KRW for overseas travel.

The duty-free area of Terminal 1 at Incheon International Airport is bustling with travelers. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The average cost for all domestic travel destinations was 339,000 KRW. Compared to the domestic travel average, Jeju Island costs about 1.6 times more, and overseas travel about 3.4 times more. Overseas travelers spent three times the domestic travel cost and more than twice the Jeju travel cost on their trips.

Consumer Insight analyzed this by stating, "What this result tells us is that people do not want to go to Jeju even if it were half the price of overseas travel, and the fact that many people empathize with this is serious."

The main issue pointed out by the research agency regarding Jeju tourism was high prices. The travel cost increase rate from 2020 to 2021 was 18% domestically, 21% overseas, but Jeju Island had the lowest at 15%. In contrast, Gangwon Province saw the highest increase at 31%, which sparked a controversy over overcharging in the Gangwon area for a while.

However, costs changed starting last year. While both domestic and overseas travel costs increased by 3%, Jeju Island saw a 14% increase.

Consumer Insight stated, "At that time, Jeju Island ranked the lowest nationwide in the 'price and fairness' evaluation, foreshadowing the current situation," and analyzed, "Gangwon Province, which was at the center of controversy in 2021, managed to reduce travel costs by 11% despite the worst price increases, quickly overcoming the previous year's difficulties."

They added, "This year, with inflationary pressure causing consumers to tighten their wallets and shift to ultra-frugal travel, Jeju alone failed to return below the 2021 cost level and remained expensive. As a result, Jeju earned the dishonor of having serious 'price and fairness' issues and revived the old stigma of being a destination where 'for that money, you might as well go overseas.'"

Average Travel Expenses for 3 Nights and 4 Days by Destination
[Photo by Yonhap News]

They continued, "'For that money, I would go overseas' is a consumer expression of the psychology that 'I would not go to Jeju even if it were half price,'" and added, "Jeju's claim that 'in reality, Jeju is not expensive' is nothing but hollow."

Earlier, in October, Consumer Insight released the 'Annual Domestic Summer Vacation Travel Satisfaction Survey,' which showed that Busan ranked first in domestic travel satisfaction for the first time this year. Jeju, which had firmly held the throne as the domestic summer travel mecca for the past seven years, dropped sharply from first to fourth place. The survey targeted 25,000 travelers who took at least one overnight domestic summer vacation trip from June to August this year. The domestic travel destinations included 16 metropolitan cities and provinces nationwide, excluding Sejong City.

Jeju, which ranked fourth at that time, received a score of 723 points. This was a 34-point drop compared to last year, marking the largest decrease in satisfaction among domestic travel destinations. The biggest factor in the decline of Jeju's overall satisfaction was the 'high price controversy.'

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