Blistering heat has vacationers throwing in the beach towel and heading indoors
As temperatures near 40 degrees Celsius, vacationers are skipping beaches and theme parks for malls, movie theaters and other air-conditioned venues.
People crowd an indoor shopping complex in Seoul on Aug. 2.
NEWS1
Vacationers are ditching traditional summer destinations for cooler alternatives as temperatures soared to near 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) nationwide.
Outdoor tourist attractions and leisure facilities such as beaches and theme parks are seeing far fewer visitors this vacation season. Instead, more people are flocking to air-conditioned indoor spaces such as shopping malls and cultural venues.
Searches for shopping venues rose 5.2 percent between July 27 and Sunday from a year earlier, according to TMAP Mobility on Wednesday. The data covers the period when the heat wave intensified across the country.
Searches in the travel and leisure category dropped 16.5 percent over the same period.
Within the shopping category, search demand for supermarkets jumped 26.2 percent, while department stores saw a 4.5 percent increase.
The trend suggests that more people are choosing large shopping complexes where they can shop, dine and escape the heat in one place.
Indoor cultural venues also saw a sharp rise in demand. Searches for movie theaters surged 52.1 percent from a year earlier, followed by science museums at 42.7 percent and performance venues at 39.2 percent.
Outdoor leisure destinations, however, were hit hard.
Searches for water and marine sports facilities plunged 52.5 percent, while observatories dropped 50.4 percent. Lakes fell 49.1 percent, waterfalls and valleys declined 47.9 percent, and theme parks were down 37.7 percent from a year earlier.
Searches for beaches declined 11.2 percent, a much smaller drop than for other outdoor leisure destinations.
The most-searched beaches this summer were Anmok Beach in Gangneung, Gangwon; Songdo Beach in Busan; Hamdeok Beach on Jeju Island; Mallipo Beach in South Chungcheong; and Jinha Beach in Ulsan.
BY KO SEUNG-PYO [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
