hankyoreh

Travelers fill the departures area of Incheon International Airport on March 22. (Yonhap News)

“Ever since they announced that quarantine was being waived for incoming international travelers, interest and inquiries about overseas travel packages have been on the rise,” said Cho Il-sang, a manager for the travel agency HanaTour.

“The increase has been especially noticeable with certain reservations, including honeymoon packages and airline tickets. It looks like there’s growing anticipation that people will be able to travel overseas.”

After suffering a major blow as the COVID-19 pandemic dragged on, the travel and airline industries are getting their first signs of good news in a long time.

This comes after Korea’s disease control authorities announced on March 11 that international passengers who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 would be exempt from self-quarantine requirements starting March 21.

The travel industry had already been showing some signs of life since late 2021, when the South Korean government announced plans to relax disease control measures and transition to “living with COVID-19.”

But then it faced another bitter blow when the Omicron variant began spreading, and it was announced that arriving international passengers would be required to self-quarantine for 10 days. Travel and airline companies had been asking for the long self-quarantine period to be lifted, noting that travel demand had remained low due to its length.

Since the government’s self-quarantine exemption announcement, travel companies like HanaTour, Modetour, Very Good Tour, and Yellow Balloon Tour have been ramping up marketing for overseas travel on social network services.

In a March 14 Facebook post, Very Good Tour promoted package tours to Greece and Turkey on March 25 and 30, respectively.

“No more cancellations. We’re really going,” it wrote.

HanaTour began marketing travel packages to Spain, Saipan, Hawaii, Bangkok, and Pattaya. Yellow Balloon has been offering discounts with travel packages to Hawaii and Australia.

Meanwhile, airlines are once again taking to the skies for overseas journeys.

Asiana Airlines made the decision to resume service to Nagoya as of April, after suspending it in April of last year. It is also providing additional service to Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka. Japan is one of the preferred travel destinations among South Korean travelers.

Air Busan increased the number of international flights from Busan to Guam and Saipan from one to two per week, while Jin Air is resuming service from Busan to Guam as of April 16. Jeju Air is resuming service between Busan and Saipan with two flights per week as of March 30, with a planned increase in the number of international flights.

But travel industry observers are predicting that a full-scale recovery of overseas travel will not come until after mid-April.

The reason has to do with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recommending that people “refrain” from overseas journeys until then. The ministry has extended its special travel advisory for all countries and regions by another month.

The current air routes will also need to be expanded. One travel agency official said, “We’ll need more service to places like China and Japan before overseas travel can recover.”

Other obstacles include the surge in South Korean COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant, along with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Before we see an increase in travelers, we’re going to need to see a decline in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases,” an executive at one major travel agency said in a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh.

“We’re also going to need to figure out what to do about the rising airfares associated with higher oil prices and avoidance of Russian airspace due to the Russia-Ukraine war, which is putting a damper on willingness to travel,” they suggested.

By Kwak Jin-san, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]