Reasons to Support Post-pandemic Inbound Tourism

The end of the coronavirus pandemic is in sight, as the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced at the press conference held on September 14. As the borders gradually open, high expectations are formed of increasing international tourist arrivals and the revival of the tourism industry in Korea.General interest in Korean culture has greatly increased during the coronavirus pandemic. Under the border closure, Korean pop music, movies, and dramas became more popular on global online platforms. Coordination among cities and provinces is required to develop and differentiate experience goods. Timely investment in performance and accommodation infrastructure should go hand in hand.In the short term, however, the situation is not optimistic because travel costs are still high: (1) quarantine measures impede cross-border travel; (2) airfare is still high due to the bottleneck in the global supply chain; (3) cost competitiveness from foreign exchange rate is weak against other travel destinations.With the recently deteriorating balance of goods from a slowdown in global economic growth and high energy prices, overseas tourism draws attention for its role in the current account balance. It is time to reinforce the support in assessing the needs of overseas travelers, where priority has been given to domestic tourists during the pandemic