South Korea's trade deficit in the tourism industry rose to a record high in the first eight months of this year.
 
According to the Korea Tourism Organization on Monday, the country's tourism-related income came to some eight-point-85 billion dollars in the January-August period, down 23-point-six percent from the same months a year earlier.
 
The country's tourism-related spending, however, climbed 14-point-seven percent year-on-year to 17-point-and-a-half billion dollars during the cited period.
 
Accordingly, the country posted a record tourism deficit of eight-point-67 billion dollars during the eight months, the largest figure for that period. 
 
The surge in the deficit comes as the number of foreigners who visited South Korea shrank nearly 23 percent from last year to stand at some eight-point-nine million between January and August. China's travel ban on South Korea over the deployment of the U.S. THAAD antimissile system is considered to have been a key factor that drove down the number of foreigners visiting South Korea.

The increase in South Koreans traveling abroad is also estimated to have led to the rise in tourism deficit. Between the January-August period, some 17-point-four million South Koreans were estimated to have gone abroad for travel, or up nearly 18 percent from the same period last year.