63% of Koreans plan summer vacation

Are you planning to get away this summer? If you are, you are one of 63 percent of people in Korea set to take a summer vacation this year.

According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, 62.7 percent of 1,004 people surveyed on May 27-30 said they were planning or highly likely to take summer leave this year, which is about 12.1 percentage point ups from 2012. Most of the respondents were planning to take days off between July 29 and Aug. 4, or Aug. 26 and Sept. 1. The choice of dates reflects the early heat wave that gripped the country starting in May, the researchers said.

About 86.6 percent were planning to travel domestically. The average duration planned was 3.2 days with the most popular destination being the mountainous but also beach-lined Gangwon Province, followed by South Gyeongsang Province and South Jeolla Province.

The holidaymakers were likely to spend an average of 203,000 won on their holidays and such costs resulted in some people giving up holiday plans, the researchers said.

Holidaymakers are expected to spend around 3.9 trillion won, creating 6.5 trillion won in economic effects, or equivalent to the creation of 50,000 jobs.

“We are hoping that the rise of vacationers will boost the local economy, which has been sluggish over the past couple of years,” the researchers said.

The Cabinet on Tuesday decided to encourage public servants to take earlier and longer vacations. The Culture Ministry decided to distribute brochures about beautiful yet lesser-known tourism spots from June through August.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)