Plans to have direct charter flights between Kota Kinabalu and Jeju Island

KOTA KINABALU: Plans are being made to introduce direct charter flights between Kota Kinabalu and Jeju in October this year to attract more tourists.

Jeju Tourism Organisation project manager for global marketing group Ian Rhee said travel agencies were currently working hard to make the plans possible.

Rhee added that the decision to launch direct flights was made after receiving an encouraging response from travellers between Kota Kinabalu and Jeju.

“Kota Kinabalu is a well-known destination for South Koreans, making it an attractive location for direct flights,” said Rhee.

Rhee said he would explore the attractions in Kota Kinabalu to promote the city back in Jeju as both had different appeals to potential tourists.

With the post-pandemic changing travelling trends, Rhee suggested that travel agencies create special interest contents such as outdoor trekking, cycling, and golf, among others, to meet tourists’ demand.

Jeju Island is a destination not only for sightseeing but also for experiencing its culture and traditions, he said.

The island is seeking to have overseas travel agencies, particularly those in Malaysia, to create tour packages based on this concept.

According to Rhee, Jeju received a lot of foreign tourists from Southeast Asia during the April, June and December school holidays where they welcomed a significant number of tourists.

For the South Koreans, some will travel to tropical climate countries during the winter to escape the cold weather and Sabah is the perfect destination.

Rhee also mentioned that travelling in smaller groups of 20 to 25, had become a new trend since the pandemic, compared to 40 in a group during pre-pandemic times.

He said that Malaysia was Jeju’s top market for Southeast Asia, with about 60,000 to 70,000 Malaysians spending their holidays in Jeju every year.

However, China remains Jeju’s No.1 market for northeast Asia, followed by Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong.

Jeju Air is also planning to launch additional flights between Kota Kinabalu and Incheon due to high demand for travel after three years of lockdown.

The tourism sector in Jeju Island did well during the relaxation of pandemic restrictions as it received a lot of domestic tourists, he said.

He said international borders between South Korea and Singapore started opening up in November 2021 after the government signed an agreement called the vaccinated travel lane.

He added, from Sept 1, 2022, the Covid test was removed, and since then, Jeju had been getting more tourist arrivals.

However, the number of arrivals from Malaysia has been slow since AirAsia X ceased its four-times-a-week operation from Kuala Lumpur to Jeju following the onset of the pandemic.

He hopes the charter flights between Kota Kinabalu and Jeju will be able to boost tourism and attract more travellers to Jeju Island and vice-versa.

NST