A street lined with restaurants in downtown Seoul is virtiaully empty last Christmas. Yonhap

Self-employed workers are not happy after the government's designation of Jan. 27 as a temporary holiday last week to boost consumer spending on the occasion of the Lunar New Year.

Many salaried workers are anticipated to enjoy six days off in a row, as Jan. 27 comes between the weekend and the Lunar New Year holiday, which is scheduled for Jan. 28 to 30.

Workers can even get nine days in a row off if they take Jan. 31 off, as it is followed by another weekend.

The government expressed hope that the extended holiday will help boost the domestic economy amid sluggish private spending, as people head back to their hometowns for ancestral rituals and to spend time with their families.

However, multiple surveys suggest that many people plan to travel abroad during the long holiday, raising doubts about the effectiveness of the government's plan to stimulate domestic demand.

"The Lunar New Year holiday is usually when we have more visitors and sales, but it is good for nothing when the holiday lasts too long," said a snack vendor at a traditional market in central Seoul. "Based on my experience, people go abroad when the holiday is stretched to six days or longer and the market remains virtually empty."

According to Kyowon Tour, a Seoul-based travel agency, the number of outbound travel reservations for the week of the Lunar New Year holiday jumped by 43.1 percent after Jan. 27 was designated as a temporary holiday.

Statistics Korea data already showed that a temporary holiday that comes between a weekend and an official holiday does not necessarily result in higher consumer spending.

For instance, retail sales ticked down by 0.4 percent in October 2024 from the previous month, when Armed Forces Day on Oct. 1 was designated as a holiday.

A separate finding from Trip.com, an online travel agency, indicated that overseas travel shot up 63 percent in the same month.

"The data shows a long holiday works against the sake of the self-employed, and that the government should be cautious about the timing of a temporary holiday," said Kim Jung-sik, an honorary professor of economics at Yonsei University.

The self-employed have been facing an increasing financial burden as private spending declines.

According to the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS), a website run by Statistics Korea, the index for retail sales fell 2.1 percent in the first 11 months of 2024 from a year earlier.

The decrease was the steepest since the same period in 2003, when it slid 3.1 percent.

In particular, the sales of all durable, semi-durable and non-durable goods fell for the second straight year. This fall was unprecedented even during the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s and the global financial crisis in the late 2000s.