Korea Is Bonanza for Japanese Tourists
Travel Account Turns Black for 1st Time in 7 Years
By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
It is not uncommon to spot groups of Japanese tourists shopping at department stores and buying souvenirs from street vendors in downtown Seoul, as the strong yen has attracted them to Korea in massive numbers.
There are also more visitors from China and Southeast Asian nations, thanks to the falling won against the dollar and other currencies, helping revive the struggling tourism and retail industries.
However, at Incheon International Airport, Korea's main gateway to the outside world, it has become more difficult to find groups of Korean tourists traveling abroad these days, as the weakening local currency has made it more expensive.
Domestic households have also been weighed down by rising debt and slower rises in income in the wake of worsening business conditions, leaving less disposal income in the hands of consumers.
According to the Bank of Korea (BOK) Tuesday, the travel account recorded a $370 million surplus last month, the first surplus since April 2001 when it stood at $30 million. It is also the largest monthly surplus since October 1998, when Korea registered a surplus of $390 million.
``The falling won discouraged Koreans from heading overseas, while encouraging foreigners to visit. Local travelers cut their spending in foreign countries sharply but foreign spending here rose, improving the nation's travel account balance,'' a BOK official said.
Korea has a travel account shortfall since April 2001, when it registered $300 million in the red. The tourism sector has been regarded as the main culprit behind the nation's chronic services account deficit, which tallies Korea's spending on overseas trips, overseas patent payments and transport costs.
According to the Korea Tourism Organization, the number of outward travelers fell 19.4 percent to 819,000 in September from a year earlier, while the number of foreign visitors rose 5.4 percent to 588,000 over the same period, including nearly 200,000 Japanese tourists.
The organization said the number of outbound Korean tourists has declined since May, expecting the November figure to continue to show a downward curve. But it said foreigners visiting Korea will increase in coming months on the won's depreciation against the dollar and other currencies.
In response, major department stores and luxury good outlets, which have been hit hard by stagnant domestic consumption in recent months, are boosting marketing activities to attract more foreign tourists.