People queue up at a check-in counter in Incheon International Airport's Terminal 1 to board flights departing the country, Jan. 5. Yonhap

Tourism in the country has hit a new low with local outbound travelers heading overseas outnumbering incoming foreign visitors in recent months, according to industry watchers, Wednesday.

Showing the biggest economic deficit in five years, the slump in the country's tourism industry derives partly from a rising trend of Koreans tightening their belts on purchasing daily necessities like food and clothing to pay for overseas trips.

According to the Bank of Korea's (BOK) balance of payments report for last November, which was released on Tuesday, the country's tourism sector showed a deficit of $1.28 billion, doubling from the month before. The figure is also the lowest since November 2018 when the scale of balance dipped down to minus $1.35 billion.

Following the report's release, the BOK said that the numbers of inbound travelers from Southeast Asia and China decreased, while the volume of local Koreans traveling abroad increased.

"Koreans' rush overseas fueled their expenditure outside the country, while the country saw less foreign currency being spent on its own soil with diminishing numbers of tourists from overseas," said an official from the bank.

Over 193,000 people crammed into Incheon International Airport last weekend, almost 99 percent of the volume from 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to reports.

The outbound rush was especially visible at online commerce platforms that sell tourism packages. Industry watchers said the rate of purchase of overseas tourism packages has reached 92 percent compared to the pre-pandemic level.

Outbound travelers mostly headed to Japan and Southeast Asia, according to the observers. The country's low-cost carriers that offer itineraries in those regions each logged over 1 trillion won ($758 million) in sales last year.

The reasons behind Koreans' growing interest in overseas travel are mixed. One of them, paradoxically, is the country's economic slump, driven mostly by the high interest rate and soaring market prices. Because of the economic conditions that discourage people from spending money, those with pent-up urges for economic activities are releasing steam by going on spending sprees overseas.

"It's like tourism demand that quieted down due to the economic conditions found a release point," an industry observer said.

The undervalued yen has also encouraged more Koreans to favor Japan as a travel destination.