Korea’s number one harbor, Busan Port, is receiving an honor of fifth world cargo volume with oversea transporting.
However, unlike cargo transporting , Passenger transporting is very poor due to small-scale passenger ferry companies, LCC entrance, and bridge constructions. These limiting factors lead to seaway closures and overall supply reduction.
Currently, with the Busan Port as the starting point, there are 4 international transportation routes that connect Korea and Japan and 1 domestic route to Jeju Island.
Passengers’ demand for Busan Port had increased from 2002 to 2009, but the demand has swiftly declined since 2009.
Within domestic transportation, only one route remains in existence, which is Busan-Jeju route. Which also have its transport result declining 91% from 970 thousand in 2008 to 85 thousand in 2014.
For the regular international seaway transportations between Busan and Japan, Busan Port had transported 1.4 million passengers per year before the World Economic Crisis in 2008. However, compared to 2008’s transport result, 2014’s transport result has resulted 29% less.
To balance out the improvement in Busan Port’s oversea passenger transporting and cargo transporting, I have researched about the problems and solutions of what blocks oversea route vitalization through Korea-Japan routes’ current condition of operation, environmental analysis and management analysis.