SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- South Korean travelers to Japan posted a double-digit fall last month amid the ongoing campaign here to boycott Japanese products and tour to Japan, local media reported Wednesday citing the Incheon International Airport Corp., the country's main airport operator.

The number of South Koreans, who traveled to Japan via the Incheon International Airport, west of the capital Seoul, was 969,000 in August, down 19.5 percent from a year earlier.

It was in a stark contrast to a 3.9 percent increase in the total number of locals going abroad via the airport during the summer vacation season.

The number of local tourists going abroad via the airport increased in other destinations, including growths of 15.3 percent for Southeast Asian countries, 11.8 percent for China, 10.8 percent for Europe, 3.8 percent for the Americas and 1.9 percent for Oceania each.

It indicated South Korean travelers preferred Southeast Asia, China and Europe to Japan amid the rising trade feud between South Korea and Japan, which led to a campaign here to boycott Japanese products and tour to Japan.

South Korean travelers to Japan posted a double-digit fall last month. (Photo: VCG)

Japan removed South Korea last month from its whitelist of trusted trading partners, which are given preferential export procedure. In response, Seoul dropped Tokyo off its whitelist of trusted export partners.

The trade spat was sparked by Japan's tighter control in early July of its export to South Korea of three materials vital to produce memory chips and display panels, the mainstay of the South Korean export.