sequence
South Korea is in a hurry again!
According to a news report by South Korea's "Daily Economy", an inverse phenomenon of data is presented in front of everyone.
That is, the number of tourists visiting South Korea has dropped significantly, and the number of Chinese goods going to South Korea has risen significantly. The seats used to carry Chinese tourists were almost all filled with goods from China.
In the past, Chinese tourists traveled to South Korea, and Koreans were anxious, they felt that the Chinese did not pay attention to quality, were not civilized, and polluted the Korean environment after coming.
Now that Chinese tourists are not going, South Koreans are even more anxious.
Amazing data
Before the epidemic in 2019, the number of Chinese tourists received by South Korea reached 4.138 million in the first quarter, and the number of Chinese tourists visiting South Korea has been showing a positive growth trend.
In the first quarter of this year, the number of Chinese tourists visiting South Korea was only 2.869 million, a decrease of 30.6% compared to the first quarter of 2019.
Both are normal times and in the absence of special policy data, compared to the fact that South Korea's tourism revenue is quite bleak this year.
Why is this? The most fundamental reason is that the Chinese are sober.
Previously, due to the impact of relations between the two countries, tourists may be forced to choose not to go to South Korea.
But now that the Chinese themselves have no motivation to go to South Korea, the mountains and rivers in China that are more worth going to have been excavated, which is naturally much more interesting than going to South Korea.
South Korea is quite anxious about running out of income in terms of tourism. You must know that before that, Chinese tourists were scolded and had to contribute to South Korean tourism.
What makes South Korea even more anxious is that China is now making money from South Koreans in turn.
Now, many flights to South Korea, as well as sea cargo ships, are loaded with products made in China. Buyers are Koreans and Korean students.
In the first quarter of 2024, air cargo volume between China and South Korea reached 166,092 tons, a year-on-year growth rate of 37.2%, which is comparable to the first quarter of 2019.
In contrast, Chinese e-commerce platforms are indeed making money from Koreans.
According to the data, the overseas sales of Chinese e-commerce platforms in South Korea reached about 17.2 billion yuan, which is more than two times higher than last year and about five times higher than in 2019. The purchasing strength of Koreans feeds 1/10 of Yiwu.
I have to say that the purchasing power of Koreans is also quite powerful. They buy mobile phone accessories, outdoor camping gear, women's clothing, small household appliances, etc. in China, and Koreans are intensively interested in these things.
What is even more admirable is that the patience of Koreans waiting for packages is very good, and many Chinese goods will take more than a month to reach the hands of Koreans, and they are willing to wait.
This suggests that Chinese e-commerce platforms will be more popular in South Korea, and Koreans will spend more money on Chinese goods in the future.
Before that, under the influence of the Korean wave, there were more Chinese who paid for Korean culture.
Now this phenomenon is just a rotation of feng shui, and South Korea is in a hurry too early.
South Korea's "Zhangjiajie" tourism wind
Now there are two large-scale tour groups in Zhangjiajie that are the most distinctive, one is the sunset red tour group, most of which are Chinese aunts and uncles.
The other is the Korean tour group, in which the young people take the elderly, and the Korean young people directly take their parents to check in Zhangjiajie in order to show their filial piety.
Because there is a saying in South Korea that "filial piety to parents will send them to travel to Zhangjiajie", for a while, Zhangjiajie will be crowded with Korean filial sons and daughters.
It is not necessarily Chinese everywhere in Zhangjiajie, but if you pull one at random, the probability that the other party is Korean is more than 90%.
Actually, it's a complete oolong. There is no indication of any tourism culture in Zhangjiajie that it is linked to the word filial piety, which is a hat that Koreans have put on themselves internally.
In 2001, Zhao Hongkui, president of the Korea Tourism Organization, came to Zhangjiajie on a business trip, and after returning to Zhangjiajie, he never forgot to publicize it everywhere, and after years of precipitation and sublimation, Zhangjiajie tourism has become the first choice for many Koreans to come to China.
Compared with other Koreans, in fact, no matter which tourist attraction they go to when they come to China, they will promote it everywhere after they go back, with mixed reviews, but it does not affect them at all to come for the second or third time.
Therefore, there will definitely be more Korean tourists visiting China in the future.
In particular, Zhangjiajie is in the front, many scenic spots have appeared in Korean, and the owners of bubble tea shops or snack shops who do business in Zhangjiajie all the year round have learned to greet customers in simple Korean.
After a long time, more scenic spots in China will surely become international attractions in the future.
The overtaking of the tourism phenomenon and the rise of Chinese e-commerce platforms in South Korea, South Korea, of course, can't sit still, and has thrown out the data in an attempt to "wake up" the Korean people.
Some South Korean experts even said that Chinese are not tourists in South Korea, in fact, they are affected by the poor relations between China and South Korea.
In this regard, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning expressed the hope that the ROK and China will work together to build a healthy and stable relationship between China and the ROK.
This shows that the government has no right to decide where Chinese tourists go and has not interfered. The same is true for Korean tourists who come to China, and this is the choice of tourists.
"South Korea's Diplomatic Balance"
The change in China-South Korea economic and trade relations has made people from all walks of life in South Korea anxious, and the South Korean Ministry of Finance has directly claimed that China has become a competitor.
Now it's not just ordinary South Koreans who buy things from China, some of South Korea's chip display panels, as well as essential parts for the shipbuilding industry, all come from the Chinese market.
This is a very common phenomenon in China's foreign trade, but it is seen as competition by South Korea.
At present, the United States and Japan are the obstacles to their chip development in South Korea, and the two developed countries have used high prices to poach semiconductor workers in South Korea.
In the eyes of South Korea, they are attacked on three sides, and the situation is very unoptimistic. For its part, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration has declared that China is one of South Korea's most important trade and economic partners, and that the two sides should expand cooperation.
The voices of disunity within South Korea come from all levels. Whether it is ordinary people or the government, it is difficult for them to share the same attitude towards China.
The only thing that is certain is that South Korea is unhappy that China is making their money, and they are wondering if they can create differentiated content to attract Chinese tourists and let Chinese tourists continue to travel to South Korea.
In fact, no matter how unfriendly the international voice is towards Chinese tourists, the footprints of Chinese tourists all over the world are not because South Korea has no official reasons at all, but because South Korea itself does not attract Chinese tourists.
Some time ago, four South Koreans organized a group to steal and rob the property of tourists and local people during the Songkran Festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and they were arrested by the police, but shouted that they were Chinese in front of everyone.
As a result, under the investigation of the police, a series of evidence and relevant documents showed that these four were South Koreans.
South Koreans have ruined the reputation of Chinese tourists, and the South Korean government is "plagiarizing" Chinese culture.
How can there be Chinese tourists traveling for a long time?
In particular, the culture of South Korea's successful application for the World Heritage List but its thousands of years of popularity in China, every phenomenon is telling the Chinese that South Korea is not worth it.
Epilogue:
There is no harm if there is no comparison, no matter which country or which tourist attraction, as long as you want to earn money from tourists, you must treat tourists equally.
It is too late to see the declining growth rate of Chinese tourist data on South Korean flights, which were labeled for Chinese tourists back then.
Reference: Huanqiu.com, February 22, 2024 - Anxious?South Korean media: Personnel exchanges between China and South Korea have been greatly reduced, and at the same time, Chinese logistics packages are "flocking"