Why Koreans Are Traveling to Japan This Chuseok More Than Last

Chuseok is today. The families who stayed put are at the ancestral table. The ones who bought an overseas ticket bought Japan more than anywhere else.

That reading comes from Nol Universe, the Korean leisure platform that combined Yanolja and Interpark Triple. It looked at international flight bookings for the holiday window that opened with the festival. Japan took 52.5 percent of those bookings. A year ago, on the same platform, Japan was 42.2 percent.

That is more than half the overseas tickets, and about ten percentage points heavier than last harvest. The figure counts people who were already leaving the country. A lot of households never left the family house. The useful number is the one among those who did.

The official public holidays run Thursday through Saturday, September 24 to 26, with Sunday making a four-day stretch. Last October, National Foundation Day, Chuseok, and Hangul Day sat in a row. Take one extra Friday of leave and you could get ten days.

Ten days is enough for Hanoi plus a beach, or a first look at Northern Europe. Four days is a Friday night into Osaka and a Monday morning back through Incheon.

Fuel made the long hop look worse. The Herald Business and Seoul Economic Daily, reporting this week, said international fuel surcharges climbed this month on top of higher oil prices. Hana Tour, one of Korea’s large package-tour desks, told The Herald Business that on a typical holiday about 80 percent of its overseas demand sits in China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, and that this year the long-haul share slowed because the break was short and the surcharge was heavy.

At Hana this Chuseok, those three nearby regions took about 90 percent of overseas demand. China led that mix at 32 percent. Japan was 31. Southeast Asia, including Vietnam and Thailand, was 27.

So the Japan story is loudest on flight bookings. On a classic package desk, China can still edge it. Both lists agree on the thing that disappeared: the long trip.

Kyowon Tour, another Korean operator, read its own departures for the 23rd through the 26th and put Japan first at 40.5 percent. China was second. Vietnam, which had led Kyowon’s Chuseok book last year at 17.8 percent, fell to 5.3 percent. The shorter week is sitting in the booking mix.

On Kyowon’s Japan list, Sapporo took the largest share, at 24 percent. Tsushima followed at about 20 percent, then Osaka, then Matsuyama.

Tokyo is not the line that sold the weekend. A short flight to a city that still has rooms, a soak, and a meal you can finish before the return boarding time is the line. Tsushima is close enough that some travelers treat it as a long weekend that barely feels like leaving the peninsula. Kyowon tied the Japan rush to a weaker yen and to more flights. That is the operator’s read. The booking list is the part you can use.

Yellow Balloon, a third Korean agency, told The Herald Business that Hokkaido, Kyushu, and smaller Japanese cities are the ones adding demand. If you are already in Sapporo or Matsuyama this weekend, you will feel that. If you wanted a quiet soak, pick a town that is not on that list.

The next pile of Korean leave is early October. National Foundation Day falls on Saturday the 3rd, with the substitute holiday on Monday the 5th. Hangul Day is Friday the 9th. Two short windows. Neither stretches to ten days unless you spend leave.

A Kyowon official told Newsis, the Korean news agency, that the company expects Japan and China to keep the lead through that stretch, with some travelers still using extra leave for Europe. Yellow Balloon said it plans to sell affordable short-haul packages for October.

If you are Korean and still holding a ticket, Japan is the trip that still fits. Book the city you can land on Friday and leave on Sunday without a connection that eats a day. Sapporo if you want cooler air and a meal. Osaka if you want a street you already know. Tsushima if you want the shortest possible abroad.

Skip Europe until a longer clump of days. Last year you could hide a longer trip inside the holiday. This year the holiday is the length of the trip.

If you are already in those Japanese cities, expect Korean groups in the same restaurants you wanted. Eat earlier. The holiday ends Sunday.