SOUTH KOREA. Inbound tourism to Korea leapt a further +7.1% in January to over 187,000 according to the latest figures from Korea National Tourism Organization (KNTO). Main drivers for this growth were steady increases in visitor numbers from most Asian countries such as Taiwan up +31.5%, China +6.1%, Thailand +29.5%, Malaysia +80.6% and Hong Kong +15.5%. Visitor numbers from Japan were up just +0.1% to 155,000, from Europe +12.4% and from the US +3.4%.
The outbound Korean travel boom also continued last month with departures up +18.0% to just over 742,000 and departures of females dramatically up +25.9% to 296,000. A high percentage of the female departures (73%) are to Asian destinations, where shopping is a high priority. Travel overall to the leading destination Japan was up +25.1% to 145,000. Other countries in the region also benefited such as the Philippines up +23.5%, Hong Kong +21.6%, Thailand +30.4%, Vietnam +15.4% and China was up +16.9% to 130,000. Volumes to long-haul destinations were also up such as to the US +9.6%, Europe +17.1% and Oceania including Australia and New Zealand up +10.3%. Travel to Indonesia was down -14.9%. Despite this strong growth, the travel expenditure of the 7.1 million Koreans travelling last year still ranks some distance behind the 16.5 million level of Japanese outbound travel in the global market.
