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Why is the government losing sleep as Koreans flock overseas for Chuseok?

Published: 02 Oct. 2025, 18:00

JIN MIN-JI
[email protected]

Travelers crowded Incheon International Airport on Aug. 8. [YONHAP]

Chuseok — Korea’s traditional harvest festival — once centered on family gatherings and ancestral rites.

However, it has increasingly become a peak season for overseas travel, with the government increasingly worried about the growing outflow of people during one of the year's longest holidays.

Many Koreans are ready to splurge on an overseas trip this Chuseok, which stretches over seven days — longer than usual — as it coincides with other national holidays.

More than 2.45 million passengers are expected to pass through Incheon International Airport between Oct. 2 and Oct. 12, according to Incheon International Airport Corporation. A record high of 239,000 travelers are anticipated on Oct. 3, the first day of the holiday period.

"As an office worker, it’s tough to take a long vacation, unless it’s for something special, like a honeymoon," said 31-year-old Park Soo-jin, an office worker, who is traveling to Japan for nearly a week this Chuseok holiday, setting aside just one day to attend her husband's family's ancestral rites.

The government has made an effort to prevent the mass outflow of locals, offering various local travel campaigns that subsidize fares and fees, including those for domestic trains, buses and flights to keep locals in Korea, yet with little success.

The expected surge in outbound travelers has reignited concerns about Korea’s chronic tourism deficit, which has remained in the red since 2001. Since the tourism deficit more than halved in 2020 following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has grown every year — rising 36 percent in 2021, 32 percent in 2022 and 70 percent in 2023 — before slowing to 4 percent growth last year, according to Korea Tourism Organization data.

The tourism deficit through July was $5.87 billion, nearly 60 percent of last year’s total of $10.04 billion. That is despite a record 8.8 million inbound tourists in the first half of the year.

“Korea’s tourism balance deficit has been one of the major issues we have grappled with for decades,” said Go Gye-seong, professor at Kyungnam University’s Department of Travel, Aviation and Tourism. “As more Koreans travel and spend abroad, it leads to an outflow of foreign currency and also withers jobs related to various service and tourism sectors, slowing the economy.”

The last year Korea logged a travel surplus was 2000, at $637.3 million.

Struggling to keep locals home
More Koreans have chosen to travel abroad during this year’s Chuseok holiday despite government efforts to discourage outbound trips and promote domestic spending to boost the local economy.

In time for Chuseok, the government has poured subsidies into domestic accommodations, transportation and cultural activities, offering incentives such as 150,000 accommodation coupons for designated regions and free admission to art museums.

But these measures fell short of swaying travelers’ plans.

Bookings for package tours departing this Chuseok holiday have increased by 34.5 percent compared to the holiday season last year, according to Kyowon Tour. The most popular destinations were Vietnam at 18.3 percent of the bookings, Japan at 11.5 percent and Western Europe at 10.9 percent. Travelers said they are willing to spend roughly 1.57 million won ($1,120) per person for their trip this holiday, according to Skyscanner’s survey of 1,000 Korean travelers.

The average duration of overseas travel planned during the Chuseok holiday was six days, with many viewing it as the last chance for an extended break this year, according to Yanolja Research.

“Two major factors driving overseas travel are increased disposable income and more leisure time,” said Prof. Kim Nam-jo, who teaches at Hanyang University’s Graduate School of International Tourism. “Both have grown among Koreans following the country's economic growth, opening greater opportunities for international travel. As their travel experience accumulates, so do their expectations, with many feeling that domestic destinations no longer meet their standards in terms of quality or variety.”

Chinese tourists shop at the Shilla Duty Free shop in central Seoul on Sept. 29, the day visa-free entry for Chinese group tourists began. [NEWS1]

Potential solutions to bridge the deficit
Despite the outflows of domestic travelers this holiday, there are high hopes that Chinese tourists — who have been allowed to enter Korea visa-free since late September — will help ease Korea’s tourism deficit.

Korea started visa-free entry for Chinese tourist groups from Sept. 29 as part of efforts to boost the economy and improve ties with China. The action came ahead of China’s National Day Golden Week from Oct. 1 through Oct. 8. Roughly 2,800 travelers and crew members entered the country via the port of Incheon on the first day of the pilot program, which is scheduled to last through June next year.

The Bank of Korea projected Korea’s GDP would rise by 0.08 percentage points with the arrival of one million group tourists from China.

The first program of its kind since a similar initiative was granted on a limited basis during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the latest visa-free entry is expected to help alleviate Korea’s growing tourism deficit.

However, experts suggest that more diverse and high-value tour programs should be introduced to encourage foreign travelers to revisit and increase their spending during their trip. The average expenditure made by inbound travelers in the second quarter, including international transportation costs, was $1,847.6 in the second quarter, down 5 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute.

“Past tour programs focused mainly on shopping, driven by tour companies earning commissions from travelers’ purchases. This left tourists little time to truly experience Korean culture, which lowered their satisfaction with the trip,” said Prof. Kim. “Introducing high-value tour programs, such as attracting medical tourists, is also necessary to increase travelers’ spending in Korea,” he added.

BY JIN MIN-JI [[email protected]]