In contrast to sluggish domestic consumption, a growing number of Koreans have been traveling abroad, spending large amounts of money in foreign shops, resorts and other tourist attractions.

Local travel agencies, which sold a record number of overseas tour packages for the first half of this year, expect the sales to increase at a more rapid pace during the summer holiday season.

The number of people on the subscription list of their July-August package trips abroad rose by nearly 10 percent from a year earlier in the first week of this month.

Tourism officials predict the number of Korean travelers abroad will reach a record annual high of about 12.36 million this year. The figure, which dropped to 8.5 million in 2009 in the aftermath of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, increased to 11.42 million in 2010 and 11.56 million last year, according to statistics from the Korea Tourism Organization.

Overseas credit card use by Korean travelers amounted to $2.27 billion in the first three months of this year, the second-highest quarterly record, showed figures from the Bank of Korea.

This high spending abroad comes amid a deepening slump in domestic consumption. In June, major retail outlets and department stores saw their turnover decrease by 7.4 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, with car sales also declining by 3.7 percent.

Considering these contrasting patterns of expenditure, it seems natural for officials to be appealing to Korean workers to spend their summer holidays at local spots to help boost domestic consumption, an option they are increasingly turning to as slowing exports threaten to exacerbate the economic downturn.

In his radio speech early this week, President Lee Myung-bak asked Koreans to make more local trips during this vacation season, recommending some sites along the country’s four major rivers, which have been restored in one of his pet projects.

To his regret, it seems that few people have taken interest in his recommendations, perhaps due in part to the public’s frustration with economic difficulties and corruption involving his relatives and aides.

Though it may be just anachronistic to call for patriotic considerations in choosing where to go on summer holidays, Koreans are advised to make more trips to domestic destinations, which might help their less privileged neighbors at this time of economic hardship.

It is also needed to improve tourism infrastructure and develop better travel programs not only to substitute demands for overseas trips but to attract more foreign tourists. It is encouraging that the number of foreign travelers to the country has also been increasing, and is expected to reach the 11 million target set by the state-run tourism promotion agency.

Whether to go to sites at home or abroad, more fundamental questions Korean workers should ask themselves about holidays may be their perceptions and attitudes toward taking time off.

Having a proper period of vacation in a more relaxed and meaningful manner could be essential to improving the quality of life in Korean workers who labor the longest hours ― well above 2,300 hours a year ― among member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.