The office of the Japan National Tourism Organization in Seoul on July 4, 2019. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Recent reports have indicated that many Koreans who planned to travel to Japan cancelled their trips or changed their destination to Korea after the Japanese government imposed trade restrictions earlier this summer.
According to an online survey of 1,300 people conducted by the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, 69.3 percent of the people who had planned to travel to Japan canceled their trip or changed their destination.
As for the reason for cancelling their trip to Japan, 93.2 percent of the respondents cited the recent deterioration in Korea-Japan relations.
Among the respondents who canceled or changed trips to Japan, 43.8 percent switched their destination to Korea.
Domestic destinations that replaced Japan were Jeju at 31.5 percent, Gangwon Province at 20.4 percent, and Busan at 16.7 percent.
Some 39.2 percent of the respondents changed their travel plans to a different foreign destination, while 29 percent chose to go to Vietnam.
Since the Japanese retaliatory trade restrictions, the willingness to travel to Japan and favorable feelings have also fallen sharply.
The willingness to travel to Japan fell from 60.4 percent before trade restrictions to 11.5 percent afterwards, and favorable sentiment toward Japan also plunged from 28.7 percent to 7.6 percent.
When relations with Japan recover, 36.1 percent said they would be willing to travel to Japan.
“The main factors that people usually consider when choosing Japan as their travel destination are accessibility, attractiveness, price competitiveness and a variety of tourism content,” an official from the institution said.
“Considering these reasons, policies are needed to enhance the attractiveness of domestic tourism.”
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
