"Golden Holiday 1 Million Overseas Travelers on the Move... Surpassing Pre-COVID Levels"

Major Travel Agencies' Package Booking Rates Soar Year-on-Year
Short-Haul Destinations Like Southeast Asia and Japan Popular
Long-Haul Demand Including Miju and Europe Also Joins In

The golden holiday coincided with the transition to endemicity (periodic outbreaks of infectious diseases). According to major domestic travel agencies, the number of people traveling abroad during this year's Chuseok holiday has increased significantly compared to both last year and the pre-COVID-19 period. The industry expects that more than one million people will travel overseas during this holiday period.

On the 27th, ahead of the Chuseok holiday, the duty-free area of Terminal 1 at Incheon International Airport is bustling with travelers. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

According to the travel industry on the 28th, Hana Tour's overseas travel reservations for this Chuseok holiday (based on departures from September 27 to 30) increased by 1171.9% compared to last year. Compared to Chuseok in 2019, before the outbreak of COVID-19, it also rose by 42.5%. Mode Tour also reported that overseas package tour reservations for departures between the 27th and 29th increased by 970% compared to last year's holiday, and rose by 55% compared to Chuseok 2019.

Norangpungseon stated that overseas package tour reservations for departures from the 27th of this month to the 1st of next month increased by about 900% compared to last year's Chuseok. Compared to 2019, it increased by approximately 90%. A Norangpungseon representative explained, "Since the government mentioned on August 25th last month that it is considering designating October 2nd as a temporary holiday, overseas package tour reservations surged by about 30% over six days compared to the previous six days."

In addition, Kyowon Tour reported that the number of overseas travel reservations for departures from the 28th of this month to the 3rd of next month increased by 700% compared to last year's Chuseok holiday.

Preferred destinations among travelers included nearby locations such as Southeast Asia and Japan. The industry also explained that considering the possibility of taking up to 12 days off including annual leave and Hangul Day (October 9), demand for long-distance travel to places like the Americas and Europe also showed an increasing trend.

For Kyowon Tour, the most popular travel destination was Japan, accounting for 24%. Vietnam ranked second with 15%. Taiwan, Western Europe, and Thailand ranked third to fifth respectively. Southern Europe, China, the Philippines, Eastern Europe, and the Mediterranean were ranked sixth to tenth respectively. The proportion of travelers choosing less commonly visited destinations such as Tsushima and Qingdao among Japan and China travel spots also noticeably increased.

A Kyowon Tour representative explained, "After the designation of the temporary holiday, those planning overseas travel seem to have booked short-distance packages, which generally have more available seats compared to long-distance packages."

Meanwhile, Incheon International Airport Corporation expects that the number of passengers using Incheon Airport during this Chuseok holiday period, from the 27th of this month to the 3rd of next month, will reach 1,213,319. The number of departures during the holiday alone is expected to be 624,472, which is 187,205 more than the number of departures during the Chuseok holiday in 2019.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.