Foreign tourists to S. Korea jump 17% in November, close to record 20 mil. for 2025
Tourists clad in the Korean traditional attire hanbok pose for a photo at Gyeongbok Palace, Nov. 19. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
The number of foreign visitors to South Korea rose sharply in November, climbing 17.3 percent from a year earlier as the country's tourism sector continues to recover to pre-pandemic levels, official data showed Tuesday.
According to figures from the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), about 1.6 million foreign tourists visited in November, up from 1.36 million a year ago and 9.6 percent higher than the same month in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
China remained the largest source of visitors with 378,000 arrivals, followed by Japan at 363,000, Taiwan at 158,000, the United States at 133,000 and the Philippines at 60,000.
While the number of Chinese tourists recovered to around 75 percent of 2019 levels, Japanese tourist arrivals surged 40.4 percent compared with the same period that year.
From January to November, South Korea welcomed 17.42 million foreign tourists, a 15.4 percent increase from the same period last year and 8.6 percent above 2019 levels, the KTO said. Visitors from China accounted for 29.2 percent, or about 5.09 million, of the total.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism projected the annual number of foreign visitors to surpass 18.7 million this year, setting a new all-time high and nearing the symbolic 20 million mark. The previous record was 17.5 million set in 2019, just before the pandemic.