 |
| Chinese tourists buy cosmetic products at Lotte Duty Free Shop in Jung-gu, central Seoul. / Korea Times file |
By Lee Jin-a
The number of foreigners who visited Korea surpassed 14.5 million as of October, breaking the previous record high in 2014, government data showed Monday.
According to the Korea Tourism Organization, 14.59 million foreigners visited the country from January to October this year, up 33 percent from the annual record of 14.2 million.
The number of Chinese tourists rose 40 percent on-year due to a growing number of individual tourists. Japanese tourists increased by 26 percent from last year, after the shock of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak had waned.
American and European travelers increased by 14.2 percent and 17.2 percent respectively.
The tourism agency said the number of foreign visitors reached 15 million as of mid-November and that it expected the number would top 17 million at the end of this year.
Considering the high percentage of Chinese tourists — 48 percent — the organization said it would make more efforts to diversify the tourism market with customized programs.
The agency plans to develop a program that helps Muslim tourists find halal restaurants more easily across the country.
"We will expand the inbound travel market by developing customized programs for travelers from the Middle East and the Americas to continue this year's growth next year," said a KTO policy director, Ahn Deok-soo.
![[INTERVIEW] 'One Day Off' star Lee Na-young, director on creating subtle, feel-good series](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/796618f56a44402eabe81fe4530ab988.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] Lee Jun-hyuk unrecognizable in 'The Roundup: No Way Out'](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/77a9da6df7da4284adbee249a87307c1.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
