The number of Korean travelers going overseas rose 4.7 percent in the first four months of 2011 from a year earlier despite a recent earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, the top destination for outbound tourists, data showed Friday.

According to the data released by the Justice Ministry and the Korea Tourism Organization, the number of Koreans going overseas came to 4.09 million in the January-April period, compared with 3.91 million a year earlier.

However, the figure for April was 867,487, down 7.3 percent from a year earlier.

In March, the number of outbound South Korean travelers dropped 8.6 percent from a year earlier mainly due to a decline in the number of South Koreans visiting Japan.

“Many people are going overseas, and we expect the number of outbound travelers to have picked up this month as there were many holidays,” said an official at a travel agency.

Meanwhile, the number of foreign travelers visiting South Korea gained 3 percent on-year to 2.78 million in the first four months of the year, according to the data. 

(Yonhap News)