After a two-year hiatus brought on by the COVID-19 epidemic, cruise tourism will return to Jeju Island in 2019 thanks to the plans of more than 30 Japanese ships.

In a joint bid with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the Jeju Tourism Organization (JTO) claims to have secured the right to host 32 tour ships from Japan the next year. According to the JTO, there will be 55,000 passengers.

A massive Princess Cruise ship carrying 3,400 passengers is scheduled to arrive at a port in Jeju first on March 19. In the year, it will visit the island 14 more times.

Beginning on May 5, an MSC Cruises ship carrying up to 4,000 guests will dock there. By the end of the year, there will have been a total of 11 trips to the island.

The six-star luxury cruise ship from Regent Seven Seas Cruises, which has 800 people on board, will arrive in Jeju on March 21. The island will also be visited by other cruise ships, including Swan Hellenic, Holland America, and cruises from Australia and Germany.

On October 19, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries declared that it would permit foreigners to disembark from ships that were docked at Jeju Island.

With almost 1.2 million passengers, Jeju Island saw a peak year for cruise tourism in 2016. However, due to tensions between Korea and China escalating as a result of the deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system the year before, the number fell to 21,700 in 2018. At the time, more than 90% of the tourists from cruise ships arriving were from China.

To stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters (CDSCH) issued a ban on cruise ships from entering Korean ports and foreign visitors from setting foot on Korean soil in February 2020. In 2020 and 2021, no cruise ships arrived in the nation.

In May, the oceans ministry permitted cruises with the restriction that no passengers leave from docked ships in response to the economic challenges facing the tourism sector.

All travelers must wear masks indoors, supply personal health data via a Q-code system, and pre-register their quarantine data before entering Korea using a digital portal.

Foreign passengers who have the coronavirus or exhibit related symptoms will not be permitted to leave their ship.