This year, more than 400 accommodation facilities on Jeju Island have closed due to financial difficulties, with the majority being rural guesthouses for farmers and fishermen.
According to Jeju Province, the island has a total of 7,532 accommodation facilities, including tourism hotels, rest-style pensions, and rural guesthouses, offering 79,011 rooms in total.
By category, there are 415 tourism hotels (33,281 rooms), 119 rest-style pensions (1,013 rooms), 621 general lodgings (20,972 rooms), 334 serviced apartments (8,060 rooms), 6,028 rural guesthouses (15,055 rooms), and 14 youth hostels (627 rooms).
A total of 437 facilities have closed due to financial struggles. By type, these include 6 tourism hotels, 1 rest-style pension, 21 general lodgings, 9 serviced apartments, 399 rural guesthouses, and 1 youth hostel, with rural guesthouses accounting for 91.3% of closures.
Examining recent trends, 678 facilities (including 651 rural guesthouses) closed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The number then declined to 63 in 2021 (25 rural guesthouses), before rising to 400 in 2022 (357 rural guesthouses), 278 in 2023 (243 rural guesthouses), and 437 as of October 2024 (399 rural guesthouses).
Each year, rural guesthouses make up the vast majority of closures, underscoring the severe instability in this sector.
An industry official commented, “The main reasons for the surge in rural guesthouse closures are the sharp decline in domestic tourists and the difficulty of competing with more established tourism accommodations.”
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