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| People wait to check in at the departure area of Incheon International Airport, Wednesday. Yonhap |
By Kim Rahn
Korean and foreign nationals alike said that they want to travel abroad once there is a sense of normalcy after the COVID-19 pandemic is over, a survey revealed, Thursday.
According to the survey conducted on 203 foreign nationals and 214 Korean nationals by the Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI) from March 21 to April 4, 96 percent of the foreign respondents and 86.5 percent of Koreans picked overseas trips as the activity they want to do the most when they become free from the concerns of the virus crisis, indicating their desire for overseas travel after more than two years of strict international travel regulations.
The second-most sought-after activity is "eating out freely without limits to the size of groups," with 54.2 percent of foreign nationals and 62.2 percent of Koreans saying so, when multiple answers were allowed. Also, 54.2 percent of foreign respondents and 62.2 percent of Korean respondents wanted to go to concerts, music festivals or plays.
As to the new habits that they have acquired during the pandemic, respondents of foreign nationality picked watching television or YouTube at 78.3 percent, followed by cooking at 64 percent, as they have been spending more time at home.
Nearly 51 percent of Korean respondents also said cooking has become a new pastime, but that their top new routine is "washing hands frequently," at 71.5 percent.
As to habits and policies that they want to maintain even after the pandemic is over, frequent hand washing and disinfection came in first and second for both foreign and Korean national respondents. However, for the third answer, 31.5 percent of foreign nationals said that they want work from home to continue. Meanwhile, 25.2 percent of Koreans want to continue the practice of having fewer after-work drinking sessions, or "hoesik," showing that they found them to be stressful.
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