Streets in the shopping area of Myeongdong of Seoul's Jung District are crowded with people and foreign travelers, Dec. 8. Newsis

By Lee Hae-rin

Street vendors in Seoul's iconic tourist destination, Myeongdong, will close on Christmas Eve to prevent a possible crowd control disaster, the vendors' union said, Sunday. Plus, they will partially shutter their stores again on New Year's Eve for the same reason.

The decision came after the vendors accepted the recommendation of the Jung District Office, where the shopping mecca is located.

"It was not an easy decision and there were some disagreements," Lee said, "But we came to an agreement that people's safety should come first and that this is the right decision for Myeongdong's future in the long run," Lee Kang-soo, the union's manager, told The Korea Times during a phone interview.

Lee explained that this is the first time in his 20 years of working as a street vendor that all the street vendors in Myeongdong will simultaneously close on the busiest and most anticipated holiday of the season.

Myeongdong is one of the most iconic destinations for tourists in Seoul, known for its pedestrian-friendly shopping district and diverse street food stalls.

In this photo taken on Oct. 17, Raphael Seeger from Belgium, left, and Jerome Hira from France try fish cake on a skewer at a street stall in Myeongdong's tourist district. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Over 360 street vendors authorized to run businesses in Myeongdong operate every other day from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., with each stall operating 15 days a month, yielding a total daily average of 130 stalls in operation. They offer a wide range of traditional, seasonal and trendy street delicacies, ranging from tteokbboki (spicy rice cakes) to tornado-shaped fried potatoes, as well as souvenirs such as hats and clothes with Korean-style embroidery.

Since December 2019, the tourist-dependent area has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and still sees a 52.5-percent vacancy rate, according to the latest report by real estate consulting group Cushman and Wakefield Korea released in September. It saw an over-60-percent of loss in sales in 2020 as the number of visitors also dramatically decreased ― the number of passengers at Myeongdong Station on Seoul Metro Line No. 4 halved from 1.24 million to 610,084 over three years ― from June 2019 to June 2022.

Lee said that he and his peers, who had no choice but to close down their street vendor businesses and make a living from delivery and part-time jobs for three years during the pandemic, have been waiting for this year's Christmas and New Year holidays ― as they have been expecting double the size of a typical weekend crowd to gather to enjoy the year-end festivities, Lee explained.

However, Lee said that, after less than a month of being back in business following the ebbing of the pandemic and easing of social distancing measures, he decided not only to close down his stall but also to volunteer to prevent another crowd crush disaster like the one that claimed 159 lives in Itaewon on Oct. 29.

A group of 25 street vendors will join the Jung District Office on Christmas Eve to control passenger traffic and prevent congestion, because, "We (street vendors) know where, when and how crowds form here, from decades of experience of running businesses," Lee said.

"We are looking forward to the return of foreign travelers in February and March," Lee said. "We wish everybody a safe and happy holidays and hope they will come back to Myeongdong next year."