Travel demand rebounds to pre-pandemic level in 2025, outbound travel hits new high: data

▲ Travelers wait to go through boarding procedures at Incheon airport, west of Seoul, on Oct. 2, 2025. (Yonhap)

travel-data

Travel demand rebounds to pre-pandemic level in 2025, outbound travel hits new high: data

SEOUL, March 31 (Yonhap) -- Both domestic and overseas travel recovered to pre-pandemic levels last year, with the proportion of outbound travelers reaching a record high, data showed Tuesday.

According to the data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics, 70.2 percent of South Koreans aged 13 and older took at least one domestic trip in 2025, up from 66.7 percent recorded two years earlier.

The rate had reached 69.2 percent in 2019 before plunging to 39.8 percent in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The proportion of people who traveled abroad also surged to 31.5 percent in 2025, up from 15.1 percent two years earlier, to reach the highest level on record.

The figure stood at 30.4 percent in 2019 before dropping sharply to 1.1 percent in 2021.

The findings are part of an annual report that consists of 270 indicators across 12 sectors, designed to enable comprehensive examination of social conditions in South Korea. Travel-related data, however, is available biennially.

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