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[WSJ] Chinese Tourists Take South Korea’s Jeju Island by Storm

February 25, 2015
(The Wall Street Journal)

(The Wall Street Journal)

JEJU, South Korea [THE WALL STREET JOURNAL] —When Kim Ho-san opened an apparel store on South Korea’s southernmost resort island of Jeju in 2012, she was well-positioned to benefit from a rising flow of Chinese tourists.

Six months later, the 36-year-old was asked by her landlord to leave. As visitors from China drove up sales, the property owner told her he wanted to run his own shop on the site to cash in, she says.

Since then, the number of Chinese visitors to Jeju has soared, bringing wealth and jobs but also generating tension among locals, as well as some resentment toward the tourists. Locals say scuffles occasionally break out between Koreans and Chinese visitors in shops and bars. [READ MORE]