Card spending for tourism, air travel nears 10 trillion won

By Choi Sung-jin

Credit card payments to airlines and tour agencies have been on a sharp rise, approaching 10 trillion won ($8.3 billion) last year, industry sources said Friday.

According to Credit Finance Association’s data on card approvals in 2015, the amount of card approvals for air carriers and tour agencies totaled 9.32 trillion won last year.

Card approvals for these two business sectors have been increasing from 7.43 trillion won in 2011 to 8.2 trillion won in 2012, 8.3 trillion won in 2013 and 8.88 trillion won in 2014, recording a 25.4-percent increase over the past four years.

As more Koreans travel abroad, their spending in these areas has naturally increased, the association said. “The growth of low-cost carriers and the introduction of the substitution holiday system have exerted great influence on the increase of Koreans traveling overseas,” it reported.

According to the Korea Tourism Organization, the number of outbound travelers increased from 12.69 million in 2011 to 13.73 million in 2012, 14.84 million in 2013, 16.08 million in 2014 and 19.31 million last year. The tourism account deficit also widened to 6.9 trillion won in 2015, the biggest since 2007.