Jeju Island (Seogwipo-Cheju City, Korea)

Jeju Island (aka Jeju-do/Cheju-do) is located in Korea Strait, approx 130 km (80 mi) to the south of mainland South Korea. Jeju is among the country's top island resort destinations and is often referred to as the "Chinese tourist mecca " due to its huge popularity among tourists arriving from China. The island has total area approx 1848 km2 (714 mi2) and population around 0,6 million.

Currently, South Korea has 4 cruise ports with all 5 international passenger terminals - Jeju, Sokcho, Incheon and Busan.

Jeju Island has two port cities - Cheju City (north) and Seogwipo (south). Both Seogwipo and Cheju have cruise ports, respectively, Jeju Cruise Port and Port Seogwipo's Gangjeong Cruise Terminal. Near Port Jeju are the old downtown and traditional Korean markets. Tourists have easy access to various natural UNESCO-listed sites and other popular attractions with gorgeous scenery such as Gotjawal (wild forest) and a beautiful beach, among others.

The island's largest settlement is Jeju City (population around 400,000) located on the central-northern coast. In 2016, Port Jeju (locode KRCHA) handled a total of 534 cruise ship calls. In 2016, South Korea was visited by ~2 million cruise ship tourists *130% increase over 2015). The country was included in a total of 811 cruise itineraries, of which 534 to Jeju, 215 to Busan, 62 to Incheon-Seoul.

Due to the COVID crisis, Port Jeju paused its cruise shipping operations for 2 years (February 2020-2022).

The island has a designated World Heritage Site - "Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes". Jeju is Korea's largest island. It is of volcanic origin and is home to Hallasan (South Korea's tallest mountain) right at its center. Scattered across Jeju are 70+ smaller volcanoes (aka oreum). Jeju is globally popular for its natural beauty, including isles, volcanoes, waterfalls, beaches, dense forests, parks, caves. The island is designated by UNESCO as Biosphere Reserve (2002), World Natural Heritage (2007) and Global Geopark (2010).

The climate is temperate - even in the winter, temperatures rarely fall below 0 C (32 F). However, in January 2016, a cold weather front affected the island. The snow forced the cancellation of around 1200 flights, stranding around 90,000 passengers.

The island is served by Jeju International Airport (South Korea's 2nd largest - after Incheon). Regularly scheduled domestic flights are operated between Jeju City and Seoul (Korea's capital city). This air route is the world's busiest, with 10+ million passengers being flown between both cities annually.

Popular tourist attractions and places on Jeju Island include Seongsan Ilchulbong ("Sunrise Peak"), the 8 km (5 ml) long Manjanggul Lava Tube (1-km publicly accessible), Mount Hallasan (highest elevation point - 1950 m / 6400 ft), Teddy Bear Museum, Seongeup Folk Village, Jeju Loveland (sex-themed sculpture park).

Jeju Naval Base (officially "Jeju Civilian-Military Complex Port") was completed and opened in February 2016. Construction works started in 2007. The project's total cost was USD 907 million.

• The base is located near Gangjeong (on the island's southern coast). Its pier capacity is 20 warships, 3 submarines plus 2 passenger cruise liners (GT tonnage up to 150,000 tons).
• The base's construction was halted several times by local protesters concerned about its environmental impact. The protesters also saw the base as a USA-driven military project aimed at China.

On March 11, 2017, the liner Costa Serena docked at Jeju port in the afternoon. However, all passengers (over 3,400) refused to disembark, while at the cruise terminal, customs officers, tour guides and ~80 buses were waiting for them.

• The Chinese cruise tourists remained on the ship for 4 hours before the vessel departed Jeju back to port Tianjin. The ship was privately booked and all passengers received the cruise vacation as a reward organized by a Chinese company. The ship had departed on this exclusive itinerary from port Fukuoka Japan.
• The incident contributed to the Costa Asia company's cancellation of all scheduled port visits to Jeju Island (in the period March-June 2017), which included 26 ship calls and around 120,000 booked Chinese passengers.
• In March 2017, all the world's largest cruise companies (RCCL Royal Caribbean, Carnival Corporation, Costa Asia and Princess Cruises) also canceled ship calls to South Korean cruise ports and replaced them with Japanese ports of call.
• These decisions were due to the rising diplomatic tension between China and South Korea over the installation of the US Army missile defense system THAAD ("Terminal High Altitude Area Defense") on South Korean territory. This is an anti-ballistic missile system designed to intercept and shoot down medium-range and long-range missiles. Beijing's anger was over a joint South Korea-USA plan to set up THAAD missile system in the country. Officially, the missile system is against North Korean nuclear missiles. According to Beijing, this far-reaching radar system targets China.

Official statistical data (reported by Korea's Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries) for 2016 showed that a foreign cruise passenger spends on average nearly USD 890 (on tours / excursions, shopping, food, drinks, services).

Jeju Island cruise terminal