South Korea's deficit in the tourism balance widened to hit a record high in May due to a sharp drop in foreign visitors, central bank data showed Saturday.

   The tourism balance of payment, referring to the net travel expenditure that South Koreans used on short-term overseas tours, reached a record US$1.18 billion in May, according to the data by the Bank of Korea (BOK).

   It has remained in the red since December 2014 and touched an earlier record of $1.13 billion in July 2015, when South Korea was hit hard by the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a deadly virus that killed 38 South Koreans.

   The BOK attributed the record-breaking travel deficit to a rise in overseas trips and a sharp decline in arrivals of foreign tourists.

   The number of outbound tourists jumped 21 percent on-year to more than 2 million in May, while foreign visitors to South Korea fell 34.5 percent to 978,000.

   In particular, the number of Chinese tourists tumbled 64.1 percent on-year to 705,000 as the Beijing government imposed a travel ban in retaliation for Seoul's plan to deploy a U.S.-led missile system, called THAAD. (Yonhap)