S. Korea's tourism balance turns into red in December

South Korea's tourism balance turned into the red in December last year, after logging a surplus for three straight months largely thanks to a rise in the number of Chinese arrivals in the country, data showed on Tuesday.

The country's tourism account posted a deficit of US$182.5 million in December, according to the data compiled by the Bank of Korea (BOK) and the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute.

The country logged a $206.8 million surplus in tourism in November, the largest level since March 2009.

Officials at the institute attributed the deficit largely to a rise in the number of South Korean tourists going abroad.

The number of South Korean overseas travelers sorared 18.8 percent to 1,430,677 on-year in December, the highest growth in a year, the data said. Meanwhile, foreign tourist arrivals in the country totaled 1,086,569 in number, up 17 percent from a year earlier.

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com

S. Korea's tourism balance turns into red in December

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