<Anchor> In the
past, it was a time when we were excited for a summer vacation, but as the corona pandemic has lengthened, our vacation culture has changed a lot. As the so-called '7th and 8th seconds', the peak holiday season, has disappeared, the tourism industry, which was expecting the main part of the holiday season, is sighing.
Reporter Han Ji-yeon reported.
<Reporter> This
is a small and medium-sized hotel with 50 rooms in downtown Seoul.
There are no customers and only one staff member is guarding the counter.
[Small and medium-sized hotel A: Because sales are falling a lot. Originally, we worked as a team of two, but now only one person works... Automatic unpaid leave, resignation (Okay.)]
Reservations from other hotels are being canceled one after another.
I cut the price by half, but to no avail.
[Small and medium-sized Hotel B: because, even though a lot of dhows and cheaper to sell customers during peak season season (reservations) dwaetgo lot that's all clear eotneunde, 3-4 in 100% clear (thats) in early July -
a similar situation-star hotels, The reality is that even two-thirds of the total rooms, which are subject to the distance restrictions, are not filled.
[5-star hotel: (holiday season) there were expectations, but there are no hotels that exceed the (distance) limit in the high-end hotels in the
metropolitan area
.] As the
4th stage of distancing in the metropolitan area coincided with the holiday season, the biggest part disappeared.
During this period, credit card spending at lodging establishments in Seoul fell by more than 40% compared to the previous year, while travel spending plunged 82%.
Small travel agencies were not able to afford labor costs, so they closed their doors during the peak season.
[Small travel agency: We have shut down. July-August. We're going to start operating from the end of August.]
[Small condo company: It must be said that there are very few reservations in the first place. Because our company is so small.] As the number
of 'latecance' that moves summer vacation to '8 mal and 9 seconds' increases, we are expecting this, but as the forecast that this period could coincide with the peak of the 4th pandemic came out, The tourism industry is sighing with no promises.
(Video editing: Kim Jong-tae, VJ: Jung Min-goo)