Japan’s Osaka was selected as the most popular holiday destination for Koreans in the first quarter of 2016, according to international online travel agency, Expedia, Tuesday.

Expedia analyzed its flight reservation records to narrow down the 10 cities most frequently visited by Koreans from January to March 2016. 

Although it did not disclose the total number of reservations, the agency said Osaka had the highest rate of flight bookings at 17.5 percent, an increase of 37.5 percent from the same period of last year.

Expedia assessed that Osaka is steadily gaining traction among Koreans as it is only a couple of hours away by plane and is close to Japan’s old capital Kyoto, which has myriad exotic things both to see and eat. 

Filling out the top 10 after Osaka, other popular travel spots were Jejudo Island and Seoul in Korea, Okinawa and Tokyo in Japan, Busan, Taiwanese capital Taiwan, Fukuoka, Guam and Hong Kong.

Expedia said the Korean government’s encouragement of domestic travel, as well as its own special hotel discount events, helped increase traffic to Jejudo Island and Seoul.

The top 10 destinations took up 41.6 percent of the entire reservations, a 1.2 percent rise from the same period in last year.

Expedia is the world’s biggest online travel agency, having scored profits of 57.9 trillion won ($50 billion) in 2014. It started out as a division of Microsoft in 1996 before later separating.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)