Incheon International Airport is crowded with passengers on Thursday. Newsis

By Lee Yeon-woo

Many vacation-starved Koreans are expected to spend this Lunar New Year holiday abroad, celebrating the first major national holiday without quarantine measures for travelers.

During Chuseok last September, travelers had to go through several remaining measures, such as submitting negative PCR results within one day after their return to Korea.

This year's Lunar New Year long weekend, which lasts from Saturday to Tuesday, is shorter than other years when it has been up to five days long. However, this has not discouraged Koreans, who have decided to visit nearby countries, especially Japan and Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Thailand.

Online e-commerce company Interpark announced, Friday, that its number of reservations for international tours and flight tickets have increased by 3,187 percent, and 3,135 percent, respectively, compared to last year's Lunar New Year. It said Japan was the most popular destination, accounting for 48.7 percent, followed by countries in Southeast Asia (36.7 percent) and Oceania (5.5 percent).

"Travel demand for Japan continues (during the Lunar New Year), as the number of bookings is overwhelmingly high, both for flight tickets and package tours," an official from Interpark said.

Airports are gearing up to welcome travelers too. They said they will provide the best convenience to travelers and will supplement their staffs in preparation for the rush.

According to the Incheon International Airport Corp., Friday, 616,074 passengers are expected to fly out of Incheon International Airport from this Friday to next Tuesday. The number of travelers has increased by 1,291 percent compared to this time last year. It is even more compared to 2019, before the pandemic.

The Korea Airports Corp., which is in charge of 14 airports across the country excluding Incheon, also said on Thursday that around 155,000 passengers will fly internationally via its airports during the long weekend.

Gimpo International Airport is crowded with passengers on Friday. Newsis

Koreans who seek to spend the holiday abroad said they are trying to make up for the lost time after years of staying in during the pandemic.

"My last trip was to Eastern Europe, and it was in 2018. Since I have no hobby other than traveling, COVID-19 has been very frustrating because it wasn't easy to travel either within Korea and abroad," said a 37-year-old man surnamed Lee.

Lee, his wife and their five-year-old daughter will fly to Da Nang, Vietnam, on Saturday.

A new trend of spending national holidays without visiting one's hometown to get together with family has been impacting their decision too, as many families have grown used to spending time apart due to social distancing measures. Most families have refrained from holiday gatherings for the last three years.

"When I talked about this Da Nang trip to my parents, I was quite surprised by their response. Before the pandemic, we had to spend time with them during the national holidays. I think they now realize how comfortable they are without us staying in their homes for a few days and eating all the food," Lee said with a laugh.