2024-04-20 01:54:39
Registered04/20/2024 10:54
Edit04/20/2024 11:07
Last year, 252 cafes closed in Jeju, ‘highest number ever’
Recently, the number of business openings has decreased and the number of business closures has increased.
The number of tourists is decreasing and the burden of labor and raw material costs is increasing.
Too much competition… 1.2 coffees per square kilometer
Photo = Hyori Lee Social Network Service Recently, the Jeju cafe run by singers Lee Hyori and Lee Sang-soon announced its closure. It’s been about two years since it opened. Lee Hyo-ri and her husband did not reveal any special reasons.
However, some self-employed workers say that given the recent situation in Jeju, it would not be surprising if a celebrity other than Lee Hyori and her husband pulled out of the business. Business conditions in Jeju have deteriorated, with the number of closures of Jeju cafes reaching an all-time high. After the endemic outbreak, tourists’ alternative travel destinations, such as Japan, increased significantly and the number of tourists to Jeju Island decreased, which was reported to have a significant impact.
Jeju’s cafe closures last year were highest on record
On the 19th, following Hankyung.com’s analysis of data on general restaurants and cafeterias released by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security for local licensing, the number of cafes in Jeju (cafes + cafes) that closed their doors last year was counted. at 252, the highest ever recorded. Chart = Reporter Shin Hyun-bo continues to rise The number of cafe closures in Jeju has actually decreased since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic (global pandemic) broke out. The diagnosis is that this is largely due to the rapid increase in demand for Jeju Island as air routes to overseas countries have been blocked during COVID-19. In fact, the number of cafe licenses in Jeju, which peaked in 2014 and then declined, reached a record high of 498 in 2021, entering a favorable period with COVID-19.
However, the situation has recently changed. Business closures continue to occur and openings appear to be decreasing. Jeju cafe closures reached 251 in 2022, setting a new record for two consecutive years. The number of licensed cafes in Jeju, which had opened at 466 in 2022, dropped to 362 last year. As many as 80 cafes in Jeju have already reported closure in the first quarter of this year alone. A third of the cafes closed last year disappeared in just three months. During the same period, 69 cafes in Jeju opened, accounting for about 20 percent of all stores opened last year. Therefore, it is possible that the number of stores closed this year will be higher than last year, and the number of stores opened will further decrease.
The number of tourists is decreasing… “Labor costs and raw material prices are too high. »
In this situation, Lee Hyo-ri and Lee Sang-soon announced that they would close the cafe they run in Jeju in May. After starting their business in July 2022, business was so good that they even operated a reservation system, but they decided to close the business. Lee Sang-soon avoided providing a detailed explanation, saying it “is part of his private life.”
Self-employed workers who have heard about this fact mention that the situation on Jeju Island is not good recently. Self-employed workers in Jeju give answers such as “Jeju can only survive if it is unique” and “The prices of labor and raw materials are too high to continue doing business just by looking at the high season “. Recently, Jeju-related shops for sale are flocking to the self-employed community. Source = Tourism Association of Jeju Special Autonomous Province. Experts believe that behind this is a recent decline in the number of tourists entering Jeju Island. Until 2022, the number of tourists (national + foreign), increasing compared to the previous year, decreased by 3.7% compared to the previous year. If we only consider national residents, we see a decrease of 8.3% over the same period. Looking at the most recent statistics, the cumulative number of tourists this year has decreased by around 1% compared to the same period last year. The number of tourists in February decreased by around 4% compared to the same month last year. The cumulative number of domestic tourists this year decreased by 9.8% compared to the same period last year, and in February alone it decreased by 13.2% compared to the same month of last year. The diagnosis is that they survive as foreign tourists.
Meanwhile, what makes Jeju Island’s cafe business more difficult is excessive competition. As of March, 2,223 cafes in Jeju were operating. Jeju Island has an area of 1,850 square kilometers. There are approximately 1.2 cafes per square kilometer. This is higher than the national average of 0.85.
Shin Hyun-bo, Hankyung.com reporter [email protected]
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