Overseas trip reservations for Lunar New Year holiday up 14-15 pct

Reservations for overseas trips by South Koreans rose by 14-15 percent for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday period compared to the same period in 2017, local travel agencies said Sunday.

Hana Tour, the country's No. 1 travel service company, said group tours from Wednesday through Feb. 19 totaled 44,700 people. This is up a solid 15.5 percent from the same six day period last year.

Lunar New Year, or Seollal, is celebrated according to the lunar calendar and is on a different day of the solar calendar from year to year. Last year it fell on Jan. 28, while for 2018 it falls on Friday.

By region, Hana tour said the number of people going to Europe shot up 61.5 percent on-year to 2,100, with the figures for the South Pacific, Southeast Asia and Japan, rising 25 percent, 22.9 percent and 15.4 percent, respectively.

The number of locals heading for the United States and Canada remained the same as last year, with those planning to go to China falling 14.5 percent to around 4,300. Demand for trips to China has fallen sharply in the wake of the diplomatic row caused by the deployment of an advanced U.S. anti-missile system in the country.

Mode Tour, the country's No. 2 travel service provider said it booked 3,700 people for groups tours during this year's Seollal holiday period, up 14.1 percent from a year earlier.

It said the numbers of travelers to Europe, Japan and the South Pacific all rose, while the figures for people heading to the Americas and China declined.

South Koreans planning to go to Europe shot up 75.5 percent to 1,625, it said.

Other industry data provided by Skyscanner said that for this year there was a 64 percent increase for people wanting to go on trips with their families.

It said the percentage of family trip reservations reached 5.2 percent in 2018 from 4 percent last year.

"Social trends that value work-life balance are causing many here to opt for extended trips abroad with their families so they can recharge while spending time with loved ones," a local representative of Skyscanner said. (Yonhap)