Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
Travelers opt for trips abroad over domestic options as borders reopen
Duty free zone at Incheon International Airport is crowded with outbound travelers, Thursday. Yonhap
By Lee Hae-rin
By Lee Hae-rin
Korean tourists are flocking overseas instead of traveling domestically as borders reopen and demand for travel rebounds, a recent report by a government research group said, Sunday.
The Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, a research group under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, released in its third quarterly report on traveling behavior on Nov. 28.
According to the report, 42.6 percent of 2,860 respondents aged over 15 picked “domestic travel” as the most awaited leisure activity to do in the next quarter. The figure is 8.9 percent less than the 51.5 percent from the second quarter.
On the other hand, 32.5 percent, which is 7.9 percent more than the previous quarter's 24.6 percent, answered they wish to travel overseas in the next quarter.
Overall perception on the danger of travel has eased, the study shows.
25.8 percent of respondents answered that the COVID-19 pandemic poses a safety threat to domestic travel, which is 15 percent less than the previous month when it stood at 40.9 percent.
The number of outbound travelers is on the rise too, the government's tourism statistics show.
The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO)'s data shows that over 773,400 Koreans traveled overseas in November. The figure is the highest record this year and a 521.8 percent increase from November last year.