Exports and the tourist industry are in heavy decline in South Korea, and the reason is to be found in the weakness of the Japanese currency against the won. Japan, in fact, is one of the most important recipients of Korean exports, and among the countries that offer South Korea the highest contingent of visitors per year. The contraction in exports was notable: according to the Korea International Trade Association, a strengthening of the Korean won against the yen of 26% was followed by a reduction of Korean exports to Japan equal to 13%. The decline was particularly marked for products such as beer and kimchi, a traditional Korean dish made of vegetables fermented with spices. But the real coup de grace came from tourism. If South Korea has always been a destination of choice for Japanese tourism, the entrances of Japanese visitors to the neighboring Asian state have decreased by more than 20 percent in the last year. In 2014 things promise to get even worse and the Korean tourism industry fears losing the opportunities provided by the so-called Japanese "Golden week", the long bridge in spring (from April 29 to May 5), during which in the past a of Japanese vacationers flocked to Korea. The Japanese newspaper "Nihon Keizai" reported the investigation conducted by the largest Japanese travel agency, the JTB, which expects a decrease in the tourist flow to Korea for the Golden week of almost 30% compared to the past year; also for other Asian destinations, such as China and Thailand, a contraction of Japanese visitors is expected, but much less considerably than in Korea. And it's not just a monetary issue. To aggravate the situation, in fact, the political disputes between Japan and Korea also intervene, such as the dispute over the island of Dokdo, or the resentment that the Seoul government has expressed for the Japanese attempt to mitigate the judgment on the bloody Japanese occupation of Korea during the last world war. A spokesman for Hana Tour, a major Korean tour operator, noted that "rising tensions between the two countries are making it increasingly less attractive for Japanese tourists to travel to Korea."
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2014/04/07/2014040701725.html
