South Korean overseas tourists surged nearly 20 percent on-year in the first seven months of 2015 on favorable exchange rates and cheaper airfare, with the number of inbound tourists falling due to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak, official data showed Thursday.

According to the data provided by the Tourism Knowledge and Information System, outbound travelers totaled 10.82 million in the January-July period, up 19.4 percent from the same period a year earlier.

The sharp increase surpasses the 8.1 percent on-year growth tallied for the whole of 2014.

"The jump came as lower crude prices caused airline fares to fall and low-cost airlines expanded," said the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute that operates the information system. "The strengthening of the Korean won made overseas travel less expensive."

The KCTI, in particular, said the weakening of the Japanese yen versus the won caused a 42 percent spike in the number of South Koreans visiting the neighboring country.

The average exchange rate, which hovered at 996.19 won to 100 yen for the whole of 2014, stood at 913.91 won to 100 yen in the first half of 2014.

In the seven-month period, slightly over 7.3 million foreigners visited South Korea, down 8.5 percent from 7.98 million people a year earlier.

It said foreign tourists arriving in South Korea actually inched up 0.8 percent in the January-June period, but the number nosedived 53.5 percent on-year in July due to the MERS outbreak that was first confirmed in late May. The number also fell 41 percent on-year in June.

The first MERS case was confirmed on May 20, but it was not until June and July that it started to cause problems for the local tourism industry that suffered massive reservation cancellations.

In the first half alone, the country's tourism deficit reached $2.27 billion, surpassing the $1.71 billion shortfall for all of 2014. (Yonhap)