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Two South Koreans behind a sign advocating a boycott on travel to Japan next to a memorial plaque for the June Democracy Movement of 1987 in Daegu on July 20. (Kim Il-woo

The “boycott Japan” campaign in South Korea that was prompted by Japan’s economic retaliation against the country appears to be heating up. The scope of the boycott is expanding from consumer goods to the realm of culture, including travel and film, while sales of the boycotted products continue to decrease.

Figures released by the travel and hospitality industries on July 21 show a precipitous decline in new reservations for trips to Japan through travel agencies. Since July 8, Hana Tour, South Korea’s biggest travel agency, has only had an average of 500 new reservations for trips to Japan each day — less than half of the 1,200 average of previous years. Mode Tour announced that its number of new reservations between July 1 and 18 was down 70% year on year, with a 50% decline in the number of people on the reservations. 25% of annual tourists to Japan are South Koreans.

Some travel agencies are also seeing an increase in their cancellation rate. “From July 1 to 18, the number of people booking trips to Japan has fallen 70% from the same period last year, while the cancellation rate for reservations is around 50%,” said a travel company called Yellow Balloon.

Similar figures were reported by InterPark Tour. “Since July 8, our new reservations have been cut in half, while cancelled bookings have doubled,” the tour company said.

Meanwhile, sales of South Korean tour packages are booming. Yanolja, an online platform for booking hotel stays, said that the number of in-country reservations in July 1-19 was up 40% from the same period last year, while Yeogi Ottae, a competitor, reported a boost of 29%. “South Korea is seeing an increasing variety of high-quality accommodations and activities, which is elevating consumer preference for South Korea over Japan as a travel destination,” said a representative for Yalnolja.

As the days go by, the sales of consumer goods like beer that have been the prime targets of the

boycott have continued to plunge. Figures released by retailer Emart on July 21 show that sales of

Japanese beer on July 1-18 were an average of 30.1% lower than the same period last year.

Breaking this down into weekly figures shows that the decline is intensifying: -24.2% in the first week of July, -33.7% in the second week, and -36% in the third week. CU, a convenience store chain, reported that the sales of Japanese beer on July 1-18 were down 40.1% from the same period in the previous month, while sales of South Korean beer were up 2.8%. 7-Eleven saw a 20.6% month-on-month decline in Japanese beer sales, with a corresponding 2.4% rise in domestic beer sales.

There are also indications that the boycott is extending into the world of film. Japanese animated film “Butt Detective the Movie” — which hit theaters on July 11, when the boycott was launched — was bombarded with negative reviews. Even though the film is based on a children’s book that has been quite popular in South Korea, consumer review boards have been overwhelmed by one-line posts that disregard the story and simply say that Koreans shouldn’t watch Japanese films. According to a film ticket tracking system, 117,810 people had watched “Butt Detective the Movie” by July 21. That’s surprisingly low, considering that “Crayon Shin-chan: Burst Serving! Kung Fu Boys - Ramen Rebellion,” a Japanese animated film targeting a similar age group, sold 350,000 tickets when it opened this past winter.

Alarm bells are also ringing for other soon-to-be-released Japanese films, including “Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire,” on July 24, and “Doraemon: Nobita’s Chronicle of the Moon Exploration,” on Aug. 14. These films, where are both parts of an ongoing series, have a robust fan base.

The company promoting “Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire” finds itself in an awkward position, a representative said. “There are comments on our message board suggesting that Koreans shouldn’t go to see Conan because it’s a Japanese anime. This is worrisome and makes us wary about promoting the film. I guess we’ll have to see how things go after the film comes out.”

The boycott on Japanese goods is also having an impact on the stock prices of related companies. Between June 28 and July 19, the value of stock in Lotte Shopping — which holds a 49% share in the Korean branch of Japanese apparel retailer Uniqlo — fell by 10.28%. During the same period, Hitejinro Holdings’ stock rose by 53% while Shinsung Tongsang, which operates apparel retailer TopTen, saw a 27.78% increase in stock prices.

By Shin Min-jung and Yu Sun-hui, staff reporters

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]