Busan on pace to hit 3 mil. foreign visitors 2 months earlier than last year
Visitors and tourists line up to enter the Korea Pavilion, set up to mark the 48th UNESCO World Heritage Committee session, at the outdoor plaza of BEXCO Exhibition Center 1 in Haeundae District, Busan, July 26. Yonhap
Busan drew 2.93 million foreign tourists from January through July, reaching 73.2 percent of its annual target of 4 million visitors, the city said. The figure marks a 46.1 percent increase from the same period last year, far outpacing Korea's overall 21.3 percent growth rate in foreign arrivals.
July alone brought 507,045 foreign visitors to the southeastern port city, breaking June's record of 484,057 and marking a second consecutive monthly high. Busan accounted for 24.2 percent of all foreign arrivals to Korea that month, meaning roughly one in four visitors to the country came to Busan.
The city expects to surpass 3 million foreign visitors for the year sometime in August, about two months earlier than last year, when it first crossed that threshold in October.
Taiwan and China were Busan's top visitor markets in July, with about 128,000 and 125,000 visitors respectively, together accounting for nearly half of the month's arrivals. Cumulative visitors from the United States reached 259,675 through July, up 78.4 percent from a year earlier — more than six times the national growth rate for American visitors — making it Busan's fourth-largest source market.
Gimhae International Airport, Busan's main gateway, saw arrivals rise 46.6 percent to just over 1 million in the first half of the year, the largest increase among Korea's four regional international airports, according to a Korea Tourism Organization report.
Of those arriving through Gimhae, 50.2 percent stayed in Busan and 47.9 percent traveled to nearby South Gyeongsang Province or Ulsan, while just 1.9 percent continued on to the Seoul metropolitan area — the lowest such rate among the four airports.
Foreign credit card spending in Busan reached 742.3 billion won ($501 million) from January to July, up 50.8 percent and the second-highest among Korean regions after Seoul. Medical tourism spending rose 118.4 percent, giving Busan the largest share of medical tourism spending outside Seoul.
The city plans several major events this fall, including Busan Global City Week, Sept. 8-10, and a monthlong Festival October featuring the Busan International Rock Festival and other events.
"What matters now isn't how many people came, but how long they stay and how deeply they experience the city," Busan Mayor Chun Jae-soo said, adding that the city will focus on extending visitor stays and spreading tourism spending across the region.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.