South Korea’s tourism deficit stretched to a yawning record-high of $8.7 billion as of August this year and is likely to near $14 billion at the end of the year as Chinese visitors halved from a year ago amid row over a U.S. antimissile system installment while more Korean opted to spend their holidays abroad.

According to data from the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) on Monday, the country’s tourism revenue from January to August this year amounted to $8.8 billion, down 23.6 percent from the same period last year, while tourism expense rose 14.7 percent to $17.5 billion. The nation’s tourism deficit reached a record high of $8.7 billion over the cited period. If this trend continues, some industry watchers project the trade deficit for this year would reach 15 trillion won ($13.7 billion).

During the January to August period, the number of outbound nationals nearly doubled foreigners coming to Korea. The number of foreign visitors fell 22.8 percent from a year-ago period to 8.86 million, while the number of outbound travelers increased 17.7 percent to 17.39 million.

The fall in the number of foreign tourists coming to Korea was owed to the sharp decrease in the number of Chinese travelers after the Chinese government banned group tours to Korea in retaliation for Seoul’s deployment of U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system that Beijing has strongly opposed citing security reasons. The number of Chinese visitors plunged 48.8 percent on year to 2.87 million over the cited period.

By Shin Ik-soo and Choi Mira

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