Return of Chinese tourists fuels optimism for travel trade balance

Information is written in Chinese for Chinese shoppers at a duty-free store in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap

By Yi Whan-woo

The resumption of Chinese tour groups to Korea announced last Thursday is fueling optimism for the nation's worsening travel trade balance which suffered its largest half-yearly deficit in five years.

The number of outbound travelers outpaced that of inbound travelers ― 9.93 million to 4.43 million ― in the first half.

According to Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), Monday, spending by the outbound travelers amounted to $11.5 billion against inbound travelers' $6.91 billion, resulting in a deficit of $4.65 billion for the January-June period ― the largest amount for the first six months of any year since the $7.06 billion deficit recorded in 2018.

The deficit in the first half was also up 122.9 percent from a year earlier, adding to concerns that the country will extend its losing streak in yearly travel trade balance for the 23rd consecutive year since 2001.

Under the circumstances, industry sources speculated that tour groups from China could help reduce the travel deficit considering China topped international tourist arrival numbers before the pandemic.

The number of individual Chinese tourists to Korea totaled 546,000 in the first half, which accounted for 19.5 percent of the same period in 2019.

Such a recovery is lackluster when compared to the number of American tourists visiting in the same periods. That number surged 101.1 percent to 514,000.

The Chinese government then lifted a ban on group travel to Korea after more than six years, especially ahead of China's Mid-Autumn Festival, which takes place in late September and early October.

“We expect the largest-scale Chinese tourism will pick up pace,” a source said, adding that the number of flights between the two countries as well as hikes in relevant airplane tickets should be expected as part of the goal.