More Koreans Travel Abroad in Off-Season
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/Yonhap
Some 1.87 million Koreans traveled abroad last month, according to the Korea Tourism Organization, although November is off-season between the Chuseok (or Korean Thanksgiving) and winter vacations.
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The country's biggest tour operator Hana Tour lodged some 242,000 bookings, up 12 percent from November 2015.
The South Pacific islands saw the largest growth with 32 percent, a Hana Tour staffer said, apparently driven by cold snaps that left many dreaming of warmer climes. Even trips to Japan increased around 11 percent, despite the fresh earthquake in Fukushima.
Outbound travelers outnumbered visitors by 278,000, which meant Korea suffered a tourism deficit of US$303 million, according to preliminary figures tallied by the KTO. That was the 23rd monthly deficit running since a $283.9 million surplus in November 2014.
Market insiders have for some time been saying that Korea needs to improve tourism facilities and infrastructure to boost sagging demand as many Chinese visitors are herded through once and never come again.
Lee Hoon at Hanyang University said, "We need to drastically boost regional tourism resources and come up with high-value travel packages in order to overcome the image of Korea as a cut-price destination".