South Koreans increased their spending on overseas credit and debit cards by 1.9 % in the second quarter while total overseas travels declined by 4.5%.
SEOUL – South Koreans‘ overseas card spending reached 2.28 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter as a fall in the number of outbound travelers was offset by an increase in card spending per person, data by the central bank showed Friday. Overseas card bills, including credit card, debit card and check card, totaled 2.28 billion dollars during the April-June period, slightly up from 2.27 billion dollars for the first quarter, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The number of overseas travellers contracted 4.3% on- quarter to 3.22 million in the second quarter, but the average card spending per person grew 1.9 % to 472 dollars over the same period, contributing to a slight rise in the total card usage overseas.
According to Xinhua, during the second quarter, overseas spending through credit cards increased 2.6 % on an on-quarter basis, but those for debit and check cards declined 9.1% and 1.6 % respectively.
Meanwhile, non-residents’ card spending in South Korea amounted to 1.23 billion dollars in the second quarter, up 13.6 % from the previous quarter due to an increase in the number of inbound travelers.
In 2011, the total number of South Koreans travelling abroad reached 12.69 million, a slight increase of 1.6% compared to year 2010. Top destinations for the Korean outbound market were China, Japan, the USA, Hong Kong and Thailand, each totaling over a million arrivals last year.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
