SEOUL — South Korea’s travel-related account deficit soared to its highest level in six years during the first half of 2023, driven by a substantial increase in overseas travel by South Koreans, new data from the Bank of Korea and the Korea Tourism Organization indicates.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the country registered a travel account deficit of US$6.48 billion for the first six months of the year, the most sizable since 2018, when the deficit reached $7.83 billion. This increase is primarily attributed to South Koreans spending $14.3 billion on international travel, which starkly outstripped the $7.84 billion that foreign visitors spent in South Korea during the same period. The first half of this year saw 14.02 million South Korean departures abroad, compared to 7.7 million foreign arrivals, underscoring a robust recovery in travel activity post-pandemic, which had seen the deficit shrink to as low as $2.9 billion in 2019 due to COVID-19 restrictions.