Chinese visitors top 5 million

By Kim Rahn

More than 5 million Chinese people have visited Korea this year, the most from any country, the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute said on Friday.

According to the institute, nearly 12 million foreigners came to Korea in the first 10 months of this year, and 43.7 percent of them, or 5.24 million, were Chinese.

This is the first time the number of people from any country has topped 5 million in a year.

The figure is up 39 percent from 3.77 million Chinese who traveled here in the same period last year.

Korea had an especially large influx during China’s National Day holiday in early October ― 562,000 Chinese visited Korea in October, up 63.8 percent from a year earlier.

The institute expects the number of Chinese visitors to exceed 6 million by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the number of Japanese tourists ― the largest group in 2012 ― has been falling.

For the first 10 months, 1.93 million Japanese came to Korea, down 16.5 percent from last year ― only 36.8 percent of the Chinese total.

A tourism official said it was common for a country to have large numbers of tourists from neighboring nations ― such as the U.S. which had many visitors from Canada and Mexico ― and Korea had an advantage thanks to its proximity to China and its huge population.

“This is a good opportunity for Korea to increase the number of tourists,” he said. “Moreover, Chinese travelers spend $2,000-$3,000 during their stays while tourists from other nations spend around $1,400.”

Department stores in downtown Seoul are employing more staff who are fluent in Chinese, and expanding their promotions and marketing to attract the visitors.