Travel to Japan from Korea booms on visa-free entry, weak yen

Travelers are seen at Terminal 1 of Incheon International Airport on Friday. [NEWS1]

Travel demand to Japan has exploded in Korea amid a weak yen and Japan's easing of virus restrictions, industry data showed Friday.

Japan resumed visa-free entry of international travelers in early October, after two years of strict border control to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

The yen also touched a 32-year low against the dollar in October. The yen was trading at 132.6 against the dollar as of 2:12 p.m.

Yanolja, a Korean travel platform, said Friday that reservations for Japan grew 295 percent from Oct. 1 to Dec. 26 compared with the same period of 2019.

Purchases of plane tickets to Japan increased as well.

Interpark, a Korean e-commerce platform, said the total number of customers who purchased plane tickets to Japan went up 19 percent on month in November. It represented a 492 percent increase from November 2019, two months before Korea reported the first Covid-19 case. Interpark did not provide the figures, citing an industry practice.

Similarly, at the small travel agency Yellow Balloon Tour, bookings for tour packages to Japan surged over 70 percent in December from a month earlier, it said.

"Travel demand for Japan began to grow in November after the country allowed no-visa entry for individual travelers. A lot of customers seem to be planning trips to Japan in the winter and during the Lunar New Year holiday," an official from the travel agency said.

The most popular destination was Osaka.

Around 41 percent of bookings made for Japan on Yanolja were for Osaka, the company said. Tokyo was the second-most popular destination with 27 percent, followed by Fukuoka with 22 percent.

At Yellow Balloon Tour, searches for Osaka grew 609 percent on-month in November.

Some 820,000 people flew to Japan from Korea in November, Transport Ministry data showed, accounting for 26.6 percent of all outbound travelers for the month.

Yonhap