As foreign tourists crowd Seoul's nat'l museums, regional venues struggle to keep pace
Foreign visitors to Korea’s national museums are heavily concentrated at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul, data showed. Regional museums are falling behind in attracting overseas tourists as their budgets shrink. The National Museum of Korea submitted the data on Friday to Rep. Kim Seung-soo of the main opposition People Power Party for the annual parliamentary audit. It shows 411,964…
Foreign tourists are overwhelmingly drawn to Seoul's National Museum of Korea, according to data submitted to a South Korean lawmaker. The museum welcomed 291,460 overseas visitors as of August, accounting for 70.7% of the 411,964 foreign tourists who visited national museums nationwide. The remaining 29.3% of tourists spread across 13 regional museums.
Gyeongju and Jeju National Museums accounted for a vast majority of regional museum visitors, drawing 75,089 and 19,172 tourists respectively. In contrast, smaller regional museums drew far fewer: Gwangju National Museum attracted only 1,651, Daegu National Museum 1,383, and Naju National Museum 641. The disparity in visitor numbers is mirrored in the museums' budgets, with the 13 regional museums reporting a combined shortfall.
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