In the second quarter of this year, South Korea's tourism revenue reached a 17-year low as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, government data Monday on revealed.
The Korea Tourist Organization (KTO) announced the US $1.19 billion in tourism revenue for the April-June period, a decrease of 78.6% from $5.57 billion in the same period of last year.
Three months earlier, it tumbled 65.5 percent from $3.46 billion.
It is the lowest quarterly amount since South Korea reported $1.11 billion in tourism revenues in 2003.
As the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the world tourism industry, it was a significant reduction, as the majority of countries closed their borders and mandated international arrival to hold a fourteen-day quarantine.
During the second quarter of 2020, the number of international tourists was 970,000, reduced from 4.6 million in 2019.
Meanwhile, South Korean tourists spent a 17-year low of $1.7 billion overseas in the second quarter, down 76.3 percent from a year earlier.
As a result, the deficit of the country's tourism account decreased to $510 million for the April-June period, down sharply from $1.64 billion tallied a year ago.
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