The deficit in the nation’s tourism balance in the first half of the year reached the highest figure in five years.

According to data released by the Korea Tourism Organization on Monday, the nation’s travel deficit reached more than four-point-six billion U.S. dollars in the first six months of this year, the highest to be posted since the first half of 2018 and up nearly 123 percent from the same period last year.

The tourism balance has logged a deficit for 22 consecutive years since 2001, a streak that is expected to continue this year as well.

The figure peaked at some 14-point-seven billion dollars in 2017 but proceeded to shrink to nearly three-point-two billion dollars in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic before expanding again following the beginning of the endemic phase.

The tourism deficit grew from some four-point-three billion dollars in 2021 to five-point-three billion dollars last year.

The effect on the deficit by China’s recent decision to permit group tours to South Korea for the first time since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic three years ago is the subject of much speculation.