Foreign tourist arrivals up 21.3% through July, driven by Japanese visitors
Summary
Korea welcomed 12.8 million foreign tourists in the first seven months of 2026, up 21.3 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Monday. Japanese travelers were a major driver, with 2.28 million visitors and a record 28 percent of all Japanese outbound travelers choosing Korea. Foreign tourist card spending reached 12.09 trillion won through July, while officials also pointed to more Japan-Korea flight seats and targeted regional airport campaigns.
Key Facts
- The number of Japanese visitors to Korea reached 2.28 million through July, up 18.8 percent from a year earlier.
- Japanese travelers to Korea accounted for 28 percent of all Japanese outbound travelers through July, the highest share on record.
- Foreign tourist spending on credit and debit cards totaled 12.09 trillion won through July, up 48.3 percent from 8.15 trillion won a year earlier.
- Weekly Korea-Japan flight seats rose to 349,000, up 2.4 percent from the end of 2025, as airlines shifted more long-haul capacity to short-haul routes.
- The Korea Tourism Organization said Japanese arrivals to Gimhae, Jeju and Cheongju jumped between 52 percent and 93 percent after campaigns aimed at those airports.
Japanese tourists wait in a queue outside a currency exchange in Myeong-dong, central Seoul, April 28, 2024. Korea Times file
Korea welcomed 12.8 million foreign tourists in the first seven months of 2026, a 21.3 percent increase from 10.56 million during the same period last year, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Monday.
Japanese travelers were a key driver.
Through July, 28 percent of all Japanese people who traveled abroad chose Korea as their destination, the highest share on record and up 3.5 percentage points from a year earlier and outpacing the United States, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam as a destination for outbound travel.
The number of Japanese visitors to Korea reached 2.28 million, up 18.8 percent, even as overall Japanese outbound travel grew at a more modest 4.1 percent to 8.14 million.
Foreign tourist spending on credit and debit cards totaled 12.09 trillion won ($8.8 billion) through July, up 48.3 percent from 8.15 trillion won a year earlier.
Officials attributed the Japanese travel boom partly to airlines shifting long-haul capacity to short-haul routes such as Korea amid high fuel costs, which pushed weekly Korea-Japan flight seats to 349,000, up 2.4 percent from the end of 2025.
The ministry and the Korea Tourism Organization, a state-run agency promoting travel to Korea, said they capitalized on the added capacity with campaigns steering Japanese travelers to regional airports including Gimhae, Jeju and Cheongju, where Japanese arrivals jumped between 52 percent and 93 percent.
The weakening Japanese yen and the growing popularity of Korean cosmetics and food in Japan also boosted demand, officials said. Korean brands held a 33.5 percent share of Japan's imported cosmetics market in the first quarter, the largest of any country.
The organization plans a "K-Beauty Week" event in Tokyo from Oct. 26–30 and promotional booths at Japanese airports during the country's mid-September holiday period, known as "Silver Week."
"We will continue to implement customized responses that take market conditions into account to sustain the growth momentum," a ministry official said in a statement.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.
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