Korea and the Lunar New Year’s Holiday
In Korea, the largest and most celebrated holiday is Seolnal. This holiday celebrates the Lunar New Year known in the West as the Chinese New Year since it is based on the Chinese lunar calendar. The dates of this holiday vary based on the lunar cycle and the various phases of the moon; however, it usually falls between late January and early February. The celebration lasts about 4 to 6 days and all of Korea is fully occupied with celebrating the holiday. Each year is identified by a sign in the Chinese Zodiac one of five colors. This ensures a different name for each year in a sixty year cycle. This New Year brings in the year of the blue horse.
During this holiday, some 30 million Koreans spend hours in traffic or battling crowds at train stations to get to their ancestral homes to pay respect to their ancestors and families. Once home, Koreans spend time seeing their parents and relatives and participating in ceremonies honoring their ancestors. This has long been the traditional way Koreans celebrate Lunar New Years day that follows the first new moon of the year.
In recent years, however, modern Korea has begun to encroach upon the old customs. The younger generation is now trending away from the traditional Seolnal celebration and using the long Lunar New Year’s holiday to avoid the crowds in Korea and travel within the Asia-Pacific region. Instead of struggling on crowded express ways to visit their hometowns, younger Koreans in large numbers would rather escape cold crowded Korea for more peaceful and warmer places in Asia-Pacific region. Younger Koreans see this as a more enjoyable vacation during the Lunar New Year holiday.
The Incheon International Airport Corporation forecasts 267,000 Korean will leave the country during Lunar New Year’s holiday. This figure represents a record high number of departures by Korean and represents a 7.1% increase from the previous year’s figure.
Korean Air had 375,000 seats available to support Lunar New Years travel demands. Asiana Airlines achieved 87% reservations over total available seats to sell during the same period. Both airlines successfully sent out more passengers than last year. The Low Cost Carriers such as Jeju Air, Eastarjet reported operating at nearly 100% capacity as well during this period.
The overseas destinations traveled to during the Lunar New Year’s holiday were diverse yet within five or six hours flying time from Incheon. Japan remained the number one destination followed in order by Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong and China.
Taiwan and Hong Kong in particular enjoyed a 65.1% and 47.7% respectively increase from last year’s figures. Taiwan’s success seems mainly due to the popular cable TV travel program, “The Flower Grandfather” (‘꽃보다 할배’) broadcasted 3 months ago and filmed in Taiwan.
The total numbers of foreigner travelers to visit Korea is forecasted at 330,000 during the Lunar New Year’s Holiday. The majority of these by far will be Chinese. Approximately 80,000 Chinese will visit Korea during Chinese Spring Holiday period Between 31 January and 6 February 2014. The number of Japanese to visit Korea is anticipated to decrease due to the depreciation of the Japanese Yen compared to the Korean Won and because of some highly publicized political disputes between the two countries. Still, the lunar New Year’s Holiday period is an interesting time to visit Korea. Seoul is relatively uncrowded (if that is possible) and so long as you don’t travel during peak holiday periods it is not that difficult to travel around the city. The key is to avoid the peak travel times at the start and end of the Lunar New Year’s holiday.
The peak days are between 29 January 2014 and 2 February 2014 this year. It is forecast that 267,000 passengers will depart Incheon and 330,000 passengers will arrive during this period. With a total of 600,000 passengers using Incheon International Airport between 29 January and 2 February, this is a busy period that travelers to and from Korea must consider. These figures represent a 7.1% increase in departures and 16% increase in arrivals over Lunar New Year 2013. The total number of passengers using Incheon will have an overall increase estimated to be 11.8%.
Howard JC Lee
Publisher and Chief Editor
The Travel News
The Media1
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Innovative Marketing Korea
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