South Korea has seen its deficit from tourism inch up in the first five months of the year, central bank data showed Sunday, despite the government's continued efforts to boost the tourism industry.

The tourism deficit reached US$1.49 billion in the January-May period, up 1.3 percent from the $1.47 billion from the same period last year, according to the data by the Bank of Korea.

The number of visitors plummeted last year following an outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

The bank attributed the continued deficit of the industry to an increasing number of South Koreans going abroad on vacation due to cheap airfare.

The number of South Koreans who traveled abroad came to 8.85 million in the January-May period, up 13.9 percent from the same period last year, separate data showed.

According to the Korea Tourism Organization data, 6.55 million foreigners visited South Korea during the cited period, up 10.6 percent from the same period a year ago.

The government has been making various efforts to strengthen the competitiveness of the country's tourism industry.

Last month, the government unveiled a plan to establish a panel on the national tourism strategy, which aims to ramp up cooperation among government agencies and related industries. The government also set a goal of creating 43,000 new jobs through various measures to make the tourism industry more competitive. (Yonhap)