Analysis of Cruise Tourism in Korea: Focus on Current Conditions and Characteristics of Busan Port

This study aims to investigate the current conditions and characteristics of cruise tourism in Korea focusing on Busan Port. The growth trend in world cruise industry is pointing at the Asian cruise market. Asian cruise demand increases every year with basis on the huge chinese tourists demand. Korea and its ports are geographically located in the major cruise lines’ sea route and have excellent hardwares such as natural condition for cruise’s transit. By examining multiple statistics, surveys, and other research on this topic, the weakness of Busan Port will be analyzed. Yet, statistics provided by the government and organizations prove that the performances of Korean ports acting as ports of call for cruise ships are still poor compared to the Asian cruise market growth. Besides the direct economic effect of entries of foreign cruise in Korea which includes all the revenues at the port such as terminal fees and ship entry fees, or by tourists consumption, the potential indirect economic effect is discussed and how an industry of convergence and integration such as cruise industry can have a great ripple effect is examined. Through the analysis of the infrastructures and relevant issues at Busan Port, many factors influence on cruise tourism are determined: lack of experts, content and insight in planning; short transit time at the port; long wait for entry in CIQ; traffic in Busan; restrictions and regulations; and other services.