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| Travelers line up at check-in counters of Terminal 1 at Incheon International Airport, June 20. Newsis |
By Lee Hae-rin
Japan continues to rank among the top holiday destination for Koreans despite Tokyo's release of treated wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, an issue that has raised anti-Japanese sentiment here.
A Seoul-based office worker surnamed Park said she will also visit Japan in a few weeks, although she is hesitant to eat local seafood for safety reasons. As a consumer, the wastewater issue seems "less of a political but more of a safety issue" for her, unlike the once-fervent "boycott Japan" campaign in Korea in 2019, she added.
Seoul resident surnamed Kim also chose Japan as her holiday destination.
She will depart for Japan in two weeks to explore Japanese cuisine and culture. As someone who has avoided buying Japanese products since 2019, she feels "slightly guilty" about choosing to travel to Japan amid the ongoing controversy.
"However, the country still has much to offer in terms of cultural exchange and does not deserve to be boycotted over an international matter," she added.
Kim and Park are among many Koreans visiting Japan.
One out of every three foreign inbound visitors to Japan, or over 3.75 million out of 13 million, were Korean nationals from January to July this year, according to the Japanese National Tourism Organization's (JNTO) statistics.
This is in stark contrast to 2019, when Koreans launched a "boycott Japan" campaign in response to Tokyo's economic retaliation. At that time, anti-Japan sentiment dissuaded many Korean consumers from traveling to Japan and purchasing Japanese products, which resulted in a steep decline in imports of Japan-made products and the exodus of Japanese brands in Korea.
According to Hana Tour, Korea's largest travel agency, Thursday, package tour reservations to Japan surged 34.6 percent for the upcoming Chuseok holiday from Sept. 28 to Oct. 3, compared to the previous week.
Another major travel agency, Modetour Network, said it suffered no damage from the wastewater issue in sales.
Both travel agencies confirmed that no complaints or cancellation requests were filed after the wastewater issue emerged and viewed Japan as likely to remain high for some time on the list of preferred holiday destinations alongside Southeast Asian countries.
Korea-Japan flights from key international airports, including Incheon, Jeju Island and Busan, show 80 to 90-percent booking rates. In response to soaring demand, domestic airlines such as Air Seoul and T-way have decided to increase the number of flights between the two countries for the Chuseok holiday season.
JNTO's Seoul office also confirmed that Koreans' preference for travel to Japan is likely to continue, regardless of the public's negative sentiments towards the wastewater discharge.
"Japan's geographic proximity, price competitiveness due to the weak yen and Japan's tourism infrastructure make the country an attractive destination for Korean travelers," a JNTO official said.
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