Overseas Credit Card Spending Hits New Record

Koreans spent a record amount of money overseas in their summer holidays this year.

The Bank of Korea said Tuesday that Koreans spent US$4.39 billion overseas in the third quarter from July to September, up 15.9 percent from the same period of 2016 and 4.9 percent from the second quarter.

But at home, credit card spending grew only 4.4 percent on-year. The main reason is that more and more people travel abroad.

According to the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, 7.01 million Koreans traveled abroad in the third quarter, up 14.8 percent on-year and surpassing 7 million for the first time.

At the same time, credit card spending in Korea by foreigners shrank. Foreigners spent $2.1 billion here in the quarter, down a whopping 23.6 percent from a year earlier, mainly due to a Chinese boycott. But the figure rose 11.7 percent from the previous quarter.

In the first three quarters combined, foreigners spent $6.4 billion in Korea on their credit cards, down 20 percent on-year.

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