The number of South Koreans who traveled to Japan in the first half of the year topped three million.

According to data released by the Korea Tourism Organization and the Japan National Tourism Organization on Monday, roughly three-point-13 million South Koreans visited the neighboring country in the first six months of the year. 

The number of tourists reached 81 percent of the total for the first half of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, and is three-point-six times the number of Japanese travelers going the other way.

The organizations found that some ten-point-seven million foreigners visited Japan in the first half of this year, nearly two-and-a-half times the number of foreigners who traveled to South Korea.

The significantly higher number of travelers to Japan from South Korea as well as other countries was attributed to the weak yen and a string of popular destinations other than Tokyo among other factors.

The data appears to support calls for South Korea to also develop tourist attractions regionally and further strengthen content and marketing efforts to prevent a concentration of tourism in Seoul alone.