ED 20 mil. foreign visitors
Second Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Kim Dae-hyun, second from right, gives out presents to welcome people at Incheon International Airport, as the number of foreign visitors reached 20 million, Thursday. Yonhap
Related policies, services must be revisited, improved to attract frequent visitors
Korea saw the number of foreign visitors to the country hit 20 million Thursday, nearing its 2026 target of 23 million tourists. It is a significant figure, considering that Korea first saw 10 million international visitors in 2014.
Koreans can easily feel the growing range and presence of foreign visitors not only in the swanky shops of Myeong-dong, Gangnam and Seongsu-dong, but also at local pharmacies, traditional markets and big box stores. It's also not limited to the capital city — the southeastern port city of Busan is expecting its annual number of foreigner visitors to stand at around 5 million, Gangwon Province in the northeast beckons with its beaches and mountains and, of course, the traditional holiday spot of Jeju remains popular with international and domestic travelers.
International visitors bring a fresh injection of diversity, curiosity and revenue. Statistics show that overseas tourists spent $12 billion in the first nine months of the year — an increase of 47.7 percent over the same period the previous year. Yonhap reported that commercial vacancies in major neighborhoods in Seoul have seen a drop of 1.4 percentage points to stand at 7.1 percent in third quarter of the year, citing a Cushman & Wakefield Korea report. Vacancies in Myeong-dong and Seongsu-dong were among the lowest at 3.9 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively. According to the report, a growing number of tourists purchasing Korean cosmetics is believed to have led to more shops being rented out in the two areas.
Indeed, the continued global popularity of Korean culture, from K-pop to food to beauty, has helped ensure the sustainability of the new flow of tourists to the country. In the annual 2026 Hallyu Overseas survey, released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in March, 69.7 percent of 27,400 respondents who first encountered Korean content elsewhere reported an affinity for Korean culture. Interest in K-pop (54 percent), food (55 percent), beauty (53 percent), K-dramas (51 percent) and cinema (49 percent) all played a role in bringing in tourists.
Tourism can inspire cultural exchanges and understanding, helping to strengthen Korea's soft power. Like other leading nations, Korea works best when hard and soft power work together. For a country that has long aspired international recognition, we should make the most of the inflow of travelers by providing high-quality experiences, including making sure that there is good transit, accommodations and accessibility.
While services have overall improved, there are still reports of issues like outsized taxi bills and discrimination, which shows the need to revisit related policies and services to ensure international visitors return. Beyond Seoul, where 80 percent of tourists spend most of their trip in Korea, regional cities and towns should also look to places like Busan as an example and develop their distinctive experiences and tourism ecosystems.