| The international departure area of Terminal 1 at Incheon International Airport is crowded with travelers waiting to check in, March 20. Newsis |
By Lee Hae-rin
As fear of the coronavirus eases, Korea is expected to see greater numbers of people traveling overseas, with the figure estimated to surpass 10 million in the second quarter.
In the January-to-March period, 9 million Koreans traveled overseas, a 62 percent increase from the same period in 2019 before the pandemic, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Safety.
The recovery is due largely to Koreans' growing demand for international travel after three years of restrictions.
According to Korea's booking platform Interpark, the sales of international flight tickets booked on its website amounted to 161.3 billion won ($123 million) in March, which is a 281 percent jump from the previous month and a 48 percent increase from 108.8 billion won in March 2019.
The top destinations among the booked flights included Japan at 35 percent, Vietnam at 13 percent, the Philippines at seven percent and Taiwan at six percent, the company added.
Hana Tour, the nation's largest travel agency, made a full recovery in its sales of international flight tickets during the first quarter of this year, scoring a 103.3 percent recovery from the first quarter of 2019 with 14.7 billion won.
Outbound travel packages have become more visible and popular on television home shopping channels as well. GS Shop aired programs promoting overseas vacations 30 times during the first quarter, which is a 60 percent recovery from the channel's pre-pandemic frequency of travel plan sales programming in 2019.
Meanwhile, neighboring destination countries, mostly located within five-hour flight distances from Korea, have seen Koreans ranking top among inbound foreign visitors.
Koreans accounted for about four out of 10 foreigners visiting Japan in February, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). Over 568,000, or 38.5 percent of 1.47 million, inbound travelers visiting Japan in February were from Korea.
Also in Taiwan, Koreans stand as the top visitors with 95,731 inbound travelers, taking approximately 15 percent of the total 623,457 inbound visitors during the first two months of 2023, according to the Taiwan Tourism Bureau.
However, ticket prices of flights remain high due to staggered supply, which stands in contrast to the growing demand.
As of Monday, flight tickets for a round trip from Incheon to Tokyo scheduled in early May stood at around 450,000 won, while a round trip to Barcelona, Spain, ranges from about 1.5 million won to 2.4 million won. The prices are about twice as expensive as the tickets from the same period in 2019 before the pandemic.
The Korea Civil Aviation Association's latest monthly report, titled “Global Aviation Industry Trends” released in April, said that the air travel price hike resulted from several causes, including inflation, high oil prices, personnel shortage in the aviation industry and Russia's airspace closure.
The association estimates the cost of air travel between Asia and Europe and North America will rise even more, by 14.5 percent and 10.3 percent respectively, this year compared to last year.