By Yun Suh-young

Foreign visitors to Korea exceeded 1 million in July for the first time in tourism history. The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism said Sunday that the number is estimated at 1.02 million.

The number of foreign tourists increased 22 percent to 6.35 million in the first seven months of the year from the same period in 2011.

In April, Korea attracted the previous record of 968,000 visitors.

“Trust about the safety of touring Korea has increased the number of family vacationers and the growing popularity of Korean pop culture among foreigners have contributed to the growth in the number of tourists,” said a ministry official.

Chinese visitors exceeded 320,000 last month, beating the number of Japanese. However, the number of Japanese visitors between January and July was higher at 2.1 million compared with 1.5 million Chinese.

The number of Chinese tourists only accounted for 2.7 percent of all foreign visitors in 1992, but reached 23 percent in 2011.

The country is expected to see more than 11 million foreign tourists this year.

“At this rate, we can expect to easily exceed 10 million by November and 11 million by the end of the year,” the official said.