SOUTH KOREA. The flow of travellers between China and South Korea has become one of the most significant tourism trends for South Korea, according to new figures from the Korea National Tourism Organization.
The number of South Koreans heading for China between January and May this year grew +49.6% compared to the same period last year. While this growth is distorted by last year’s SARS epidemic, this year’s numbers also show growth against the normalised figures of the same period in 2002.
In 2002, 670,788 South Koreans visited China in January-May. That has risen to 821,336 this year, far surpassing the number of Korean tourist departures to Japan, which came in at only 657,378.
At the same time, the Chinese represent one of South Korea’s fastest-growing inbound travel markets. The number of Chinese travellers in the January-May period hit 251,645, compared to only 202,766 in the same period in 2002 and 177,038 last year.
Other fast growing inbound markets include Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia.
Compared to January-May 2002, the number of travellers from Taiwan grew +69% during the same period this year. Arrivals from Thailand shot up +60% from 27,894 last year to 44,745 this year (and 31,962 in 2002).
The Japanese still dominate the table with the highest number of people travelling to South Korea, with a growth of +20% – from 716,363 between January and May 2003 to 868,452 during the same period this year. However, this level falls short of the 900,658 recorded in the same months of 2002.
Meanwhile, the number of South Koreans travelling to Japan remains high, increasing +22.3% against numbers recorded last year.
Emerging markets for outbound traffic include Vietnam, which has jumped +86.2% from an average of about 37,000 visitors in the period of January to May in both 2002 and 2003, to 69,710 this year.
Note: A full table of South Korean inbound and outbound visitor numbers for May 2004 and for the five months ended May will appear in the weekly edition of The Moodie Report e-Newsletter, out tomorrow.
MORE STORIES ON SOUTH KOREA’S INBOUND AND OUTBOUND TRAVEL MARKET
South Korean travel market resurgent; Outbound numbers strong but Japanese inbound soft – 03/06/04
Korean inbound and outbound tourism grows – 22/04/04
Japanese recovery boosts South Korean travel market; outbound market surges ahead
