This undated file photo shows a golf course on Jeju Island. (Yonhap)
JEJU, Sept. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Golf courses on Jeju Island appear to be an exception to the COVID-19 recession, with the southern resort island inundated with record numbers of golfers from outside for the second consecutive year, according to data released Wednesday.
The number of visitors to Jeju’s golf courses totaled 1.66 million in the first seven months of this year, marking an increase of 37.3 percent from 1.21 million in the same period of last year, the data from the provincial government showed.
There are a total of 30 golf courses on Jeju, of which 17 are membership clubs.
Jeju golf courses logged a record number of visitors last year, as local golfers flocked to the resort island due to COVID-19-linked restrictions on overseas travel.
In 2020, the number of golf course visitors on the island rose 14.7 percent on-year to an all-time high of 2.4 million. In the preceding five years, the annual number of visitors ranged from 1.95 million to 2.17 million.
Industry watchers forecast the annual number of visitors will again rise to a record high this year, as the attainment of 1.6 million visitors came two months earlier than last year.
Of this year’s seven-month total, South Koreans other than Jeju residents and foreigners accounted for 1.02 million, up 86.7 percent from 548,912 a year earlier.
By contrast, the number of Jeju residents who visited the island’s golf courses in the January-July period fell 3.9 percent on-year to 632,686. The watchers attributed the decrease to a spike in green fees and reduced discounts for residents.
(Yonhap)
