People didn't start skipping trips to the countryside just because of COVID-19

32.1% of adults say "I'm not going to my hometown for Chuseok" | Yonhap News
32.1% of adults say "I'm not going to my hometown for Chuseok" - KBS survey of 10,460 adults nationwide
There are many comments saying that people started skipping trips to the countryside because of COVID-19, but people's memories are faulty.
As a Seoul native, I remember it accurately because I used to love it whenever Seoul was empty when I was young lol.
Seoul was definitely very quiet back in the 1990s.
Then, around 2010, people gradually started staying put,
and I started thinking, "Huh?? Why are there so many people in Seoul even though it's a holiday?"
The "reverse homecoming" culture (parents visiting children in the city) also played a part here.
Since then, the number of elderly parents passing away in the countryside has increased, and the perception that one "must" visit has significantly declined.
COVID-19 just made it so people stopped going altogether.
It's not that they stopped going because of COVID-19.
Seoul was already overflowing with people even before that.
You can think of COVID-19 as just the final blow.