Foreign tourist arrivals in Korea top 10 mil.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Korea this year surpassed the 10 million mark on Wednesday amid the growing influx of Chinese and Japanese tourists, officials said.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism celebrated the milestone event in Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, by offering flowers to a Chinese woman, who became the 10 millionth person to visit South Korea this year.

The ministry said 1 million more foreign tourists are expected to visit Korea by Dec. 31, bringing to 11.3 million the total number of foreign visitors this year. Last year, the number stood at 9.79 million.

It is the first time that the number of foreign tourists topped 10 million per year. The number of inbound travelers has grown an average of 15 percent for 33 years since it exceeded 1 million in 1978. It topped 5 million in 2000 and surpassed 7 million in 2010.

Officials said a surge in Chinese and Japanese tourists contributed to the rise.

A total of 2.44 million Chinese visited South Korea in the first 10 months of 2012, up 29.5 percent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, the number of Japanese tourists jumped 14 percent on-year to 3 million, according to the ministry.

The ministry said 1.5 million people from Southeast Asian countries visited Korea in the cited period, up 9.7 percent.

Korean officials said a boom in the "Korean Wave," known as "hallyu," in China, Japan and other Asian countries has helped boost the number of foreign tourists to Korea.

The influx of foreign tourists is also likely to help reduce the deficit of Korea's tourism account to $1.2 billion this year, down from a $10.9 billion deficit in 2007, according to the ministry. (Yonhap)