{
  "id": 4612258,
  "title": "Foreign tourist arrivals up 21.3% through July, driven by Japanese visitors",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/31/foreign-tourist-arrivals-up-21-3-through-july-driven-by-japanese",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-31T09:22:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Korea Times",
    "slug": "the-korea-times",
    "url": "https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/lifestyle/travel-food/20260831/foreign-tourist-arrivals-up-213-through-july-driven-by-japanese-visitors"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "The Korea Times reports that Korea received 12.8 million foreign tourists through July 2026, marking a 21.3% increase compared to the same period last year when 10.56 million visitors arrived. Japanese tourists played a significant role in this surge, accounting for 28% of all international travelers to Korea, a record high and a 3.5 percentage point increase from the previous year. Japanese travelers numbered 2.28 million in July, an 18.8% rise, outpacing destinations such as the United States, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Japanese outbound travel overall grew by 4.1% to 8.14 million, while foreign tourist spending on credit and debit cards reached 12.09 trillion won ($8.8 billion), a 48.3% increase from the prior year. The rise in Japanese visitors is partly attributed to airlines reallocating long-haul capacity to shorter routes, such as Korea, due to high fuel costs, leading to an increase in weekly Korea-Japan flight seats to 349,000, up 2.4% from the end of 2025.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Korea Times",
        "title": "Foreign tourist arrivals up 21.3% through July, driven by Japanese visitors",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/31/foreign-tourist-arrivals-up-21-3-through-july-driven-by-japanese-4613598",
        "published": "2026-08-31T09:27:02.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}