Foreign cruise visitors to Korea top 200,000 in May

The 100,000-ton international cruise ship Visio, carrying over 1,500 Chinese tourists, is seen at Daesan Port in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, June 27. Courtesy of Seosan city government

The number of foreign visitors arriving in Korea by cruise ship surpassed 200,000 for the first time in May, official data showed Monday, driven largely by Chinese travelers.

A total of 206,542 foreign passengers and crew disembarked from cruise ships in May, up 13.4 percent from the previous month and 12.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO).

Monthly arrivals have risen steadily since late last year, from 56,000 in December to 57,000 in January and 112,000 in February, before breaking the 200,000 mark in May.

Cumulative foreign arrivals for the first five months of the year reached 709,000, up 5.9 percent from the same period in 2025. The annual total, if the current trend continues, could exceed 1.6 million visitors, the all-time record set last year.

By port, Seogwipo on the southern resort island of Jeju recorded the highest number of arrivals in May with 84,000, followed by Busan with 78,000, Incheon with 25,000 and Jeju with 17,000. Nearly half of all cruise visitors entered via Jeju.

Chinese nationals accounted for the largest share at 93,000, or 45.1 percent of the total, followed by visitors from the Philippines and Japan, both at 23,000. Indonesia and India came in fourth and fifth with 17,000 and 11,000, respectively.