Anchor: Newly released figures show South Korea's tourism deficit worsened in January from the month prior. The ongoing coronavirus outbreak has been leading to serious declines not only in the country’s tourism industry but around the world.
Park Jong-hong has this report.

Report: The coronavirus outbreak took a toll on the tourism sector in the month of January.

According to data from the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute on Wednesday, South Korea posted tourism revenue of one-point-58 billion dollars in January, while tourism spending came to around two-point-five billion dollars.

This translates into a tourism deficit of 928 million dollars for the month, up a whopping 187 million dollars from the previous month. 

The steep shift is attributed to a decrease in the number of international tourists to South Korea due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. 

The number of inbound travelers to the country was estimated at just under one-point-three million in January, down 180-thousand from last December.

Industry insiders project tourism revenue will only continue to decline.

They claim the COVID-19 crisis is dealing a severe blow to the industry as a whole and that unless the situation is alleviated, they don’t expect better days ahead.
Park Jong-hong, KBS World Radio News.