Korea has seen its deficit from tourism inch up in the first five months of the year, central bank data showed Sunday.
The tourism deficit reached $1.49 billion in the January-May period, up 1.3 percent from the $1.47 billion from the same period last year, according to the data by the Bank of Korea.
The BOK attributed the continued deficit of the industry to an increasing number of Koreans going abroad on vacation due to cheap airfare. The number of Koreans who traveled abroad came to 8.85 million in the January-May period, up 13.9 percent from the same period last year, separate data showed.