Foreign visitors to Korea top 17.1 mil. through September, nearing 2025 full-year level
Korea welcomed 17.11 million foreign visitors in the first nine months of this year, marking a 21.5 percent increase from the same period in 2025 and puts the country on track to pass last year's full-year total by October, the government said Thursday. According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, 2.06 million foreign tourists arrived in September alone, up 21.1 percent from a year…
Korea welcomed a record-breaking 17.11 million foreign visitors in the first nine months of 2025, marking a 21.5 percent increase compared to the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. September alone saw 2.06 million foreign tourists, a 21.1 percent rise from 2024, keeping monthly arrivals above the 2 million mark.
The January-September total compares with 14.08 million in 2024 and 18.94 million for all of 2025. China led as the largest source market with 5.47 million visitors, followed by Japan with 3.12 million and Taiwan with 1.86 million. Spending by foreign tourists grew even faster, with card spending in tourism-related sectors reaching 15.94 trillion won ($12 billion) through September, a 47.7 percent increase from 10.79 trillion won in the same period last year.
Brief written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
