Foreign Visitors to South Korea Exceed Two Million

In July, the number of foreign visitors to South Korea surpassed 2 million, marking a significant recovery from the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Korea Tourism Organization's statistics released on August 25, a total of 2,093,223 tourists from abroad visited South Korea during the month. This represents a 20.8% increase compared to July 2020, and a 144.6% rise from the same period in 2019, before the pandemic hit.

China emerged as the leading source country for foreign visitors, with 777,000 people entering South Korea in July alone. Japan followed closely with 330,000 visitors, while Taiwan, the United States, and Hong Kong rounded out the top five with 261,000, 150,000, and 76,000 visitors respectively.

The surge in arrivals from China and Japan was particularly notable, with visitor numbers from these countries jumping by 49.6% and 20.2% respectively compared to July 2019. Other countries also saw substantial growth, including Taiwan (129.4%), the United States (54.4%), and Hong Kong (29.1%).

Collectively, visitors from January through July totaled 12.80 million, marking a 21.3% increase year-over-year and reaching 129.5% of the 2019 figure. China again led the way, with 3.99 million visitors, followed by Japan (2.28 million), Taiwan (1.41 million), the United States (960,000), and Hong Kong (420,000).

However, outbound travel from South Korea exhibited a slight decline. In July, 2,419,457 South Korean nationals left for overseas destinations, a 0.7% drop from the same month in 2020. Cumulatively, from January through July, the number of South Korean tourists abroad reached 17.38 million, recovering to 98.5% of the 2019 level.