The number of foreign tourists visiting South Korea is rising sharply and is expected to surpass last year's record annual total of 18.94 million sometime this month.
A total of 17.11 million foreign visitors came to the country in the first nine months of this year, up 3.03 million from 14.08 million in the same period a year earlier, according to data on inbound tourism trends for September released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on the 22nd. The increase amounted to 21.5%. The nine-month figure already accounts for 90.3% of last year's full-year total. The ministry expects the annual record to be broken within this month.
Arrivals through regional airports and seaports also expanded. Through September, 4.82 million foreigners entered the country via airports and seaports outside the Seoul metropolitan area, accounting for 28.2% of all inbound visitors. That was 1.6 percentage points higher than about 26.6% in the same period last year.
Arrivals at non-metropolitan airports including Gimhae, Jeju, Cheongju and Daegu reached 3.24 million, up 37.4% from a year earlier. That was more than double the 17.3% growth rate at airports in the Seoul area. Arrivals through regional seaports rose 14.5% to 1.58 million. The two channels accounted for 19.0% and 9.2% of total inbound visitors, respectively.
By country, Chinese tourists were the largest group at 5.47 million, up 29.2% from a year earlier and representing about 32% of all visitors. Arrivals from Japan rose 16.9% to 3.12 million, while those from Taiwan climbed 32.4% to 1.86 million. Together, the three markets made up about 61% of the total. Visitors from the Americas and Europe numbered 1.62 million and 1.19 million, up 12.0% and 20.0%, respectively.
Tourism spending grew faster than visitor numbers. Foreign credit card spending in the tourism sector totaled 15.9416 trillion won ($11.1 billion) in the January-September period, up 5.1476 trillion won, or 47.7%, from 10.794 trillion won a year earlier. That was more than double the 21.5% rise in visitor numbers. The figures include online spending.
"Efforts on multiple fronts — raising awareness of Korea as a travel destination, improving the travel environment and expanding content — are bearing fruit," said Kang Jung-won, head of the ministry's tourism policy office. "We plan to hold a press briefing soon to share this year's results in detail and to outline our policy direction for next year."