Overseas travelers during South Korea's short Chuseok holiday mostly headed to nearby destinations such as China, Japan and Southeast Asia, industry data showed.
Travelers Cluster in Nearby Countries
According to industry sources on the 28th, an analysis of Hana Tour's overseas travel bookings for the Chuseok holiday showed that China, Japan and Southeast Asia accounted for 90% of the total. That was up 7 percentage points from 83% during last year's Chuseok holiday.
Based on packages departing from the 23rd to the 27th, China led with 32%, followed by Japan at 31% and Southeast Asia at 27%. By departure date, the 24th drew the most bookings at 39%, while the 23rd accounted for 23%, showing demand concentrated in the early part of the holiday.
Mode Tour reported a similar pattern. Among bookings for departures from the 24th to the 27th, China, Japan and Southeast Asia made up about 88%. China came first at 35.7%, followed by Japan at 26.9%, Southeast Asia at 24.9%, Europe at 5.1% and the Americas and South Pacific at 4.7%.
At Yellow Balloon Tour, China accounted for the largest share of bookings at 37.1%, followed by Japan at 30.5%, Vietnam at 9.4% and Taiwan at 7.4%. Travelers accompanied by adult children made up 25.5% of bookings, while three-generation family travelers accounted for 22.9%.
For Kyowon Tour's Travel Easy bookings departing from the 23rd to the 26th, Japan posted the highest share at 40.5%. China accounted for 24.3%, followed by Taiwan at 5.6%, Vietnam at 5.3% and Northern Europe at 3.9%.
Japan and China Also Drive This Year's Growth in International Flights
The preference for short-haul travel was not limited to the Chuseok holiday. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's air portal information system on the 26th of this month, international passenger traffic reached 68.435 million in the January-August period, up 9.8% from a year earlier. International flights over the same period rose 6.6% to 384,700.
Passengers on Japan routes climbed 20.3% to 21.31 million, while China routes rose 23.0% to 13.615 million. The combined increase on those two routes alone came to 6.141 million passengers, close to the 6.12 million increase in total international passenger traffic. Japan and China routes accounted for 51.0% of all international passengers.
Analysts attribute Japan's gains to the weak yen, which supported travel demand. In China's case, visa-free entry is seen as a factor. Notably, passenger traffic on China routes rose 23.0% while flights increased only 7.9%, indicating that demand recovered faster than capacity expanded.
