'We've just walked around it': Tourists unfazed by Seoul's impeachment protests

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'We've just walked around it': Tourists unfazed by Seoul's impeachment protests

Published: 14 Dec. 2024, 06:00

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Entrance to the Myeong-Dong shopping streets on a cold Thursday morning [HA YUN-JI]

President Yoon Suk-Yeol’s martial law declaration threw Korea into a political crisis last week. Citizens, it was widely reported, fell into a nationwide panic, taking to the streets to protest, clearing daily necessities from convenience store shelves and flooding the country's social networks with a deluge of traffic that likely took their servers down. The won crashed, and the stock market has struggled to recover.

On the streets of Seoul's most Instagram-able tourist districts, however, international visitors largely seem to be getting on with things.

Crowds were slightly below their usual levels in Seoul's famous Myeong-dong shopping center on a crisp Thursday winter morning. Dotted throughout the throng were several pairs of Walking Tourist Guides, dressed in bright red, who'd been sent to help overseas travelers find their way.

A group of five Australian visitors in Myeong-dong, central Seoul, said that they were “stoked” to be in Korea, having experienced nothing so far that would prompt them to cut their trip short.

“We haven’t experienced anything with regards to the martial law stuff,” one mid-20s tourist told the JoongAng Daily, seated in front of a large Christmas tree.

Although the group had recently crossed paths with a protest in Busan, none of the five had viewed it as a concern.

“It was fine,” the tourist said of the experience.

Fewer visitors than usual enter and exit Lotte Young Plaza in Myeong-dong, central Seoul. [HA YUN-JI]

Government officials, however, clearly don't feel the same way. Several countries have issued travel warnings: China told its citizens to “enhance security awareness and reduce unnecessary outings” while in Korea while the United States recommended avoiding large crowds. Domestically, stakeholders including businesses and tourism associations have expressed public fear that the political crisis could hurt future tourism, pushing officials to spring to damage control.

In response, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced several countermeasures, to promote “Safe Seoul,” at a meeting of tourism stakeholders on Wednesday.

“We will do our best to ensure that tourists who experience Seoul return home with the conviction that Seoul is a safe, enjoyable city that they would want to visit again,” the mayor said.

Oh’s office promised to provide targeted incentives to small businesses, such as employment subsidies for skilled workers and support to develop travel packages and events.

Alongside deploying more Walking Tourist Guides, the city is pushing out more promotional material with the message that Seoul is a “consistently safe and tourist-friendly city.”

A group of students explore their surroundings. [HA YUN-JI]

On Thursday, the government extended the K-ETA temporary exemption, which grants free entry to visitors from 67 countries, by one year to the end of 2025.

How the aftermath of Yoon's declaration will impact international tourism numbers — which had recovered to 97 percent of pre-Covid levels as of October of this year — remains to be seen.

The key demographic of concern is Chinese tourists, who represented more than 29 percent of Korea’s international visitors between January and October of 2024. That number represented an increase of 158.9 percent from the January-October 2023 period and grew 57.2 percent in October alone.

According to Bloomberg Intelligence, there could be a reduction in Chinese visitor levels of as much as 19 percent early next year, as public safety concerns have a greater resonance among them.

Japanese visitor levels were the second most populous group, making up 19.2 percent of Korea's total. The group grew 42.9 percent year-over-year in 2024.

Shoppers frequent Myeong-dong stores. [HA YUN-JI]

But the Australian tourists on the streets of Myeong-dong, for their part, remain undeterred by the occasional protest they encounter.

“We've just sort of walked around it,” a member of the group said.

BY KAYA SELBY [[email protected]]