November Visitors to Korea Reach 1.596 Million; Record Year Ahead for Inbound Tourism
Creatrip Team
2 months ago
South Korea welcomed 1,596,939 foreign visitors in November, up 17.3% year‑on‑year and 9.6% above November 2019. China remained the largest source market with 378,000 visitors, followed by Japan (363,000), Taiwan (158,000), the United States (133,000) and the Philippines (60,000). Compared with November 2019, Chinese arrivals are at 74.8% of the 2019 level, while Japanese arrivals rose 40.4%. From January to November, cumulative inbound tourists reached 17.42 million, a 15.4% increase from a year earlier and 8.6% more than the same period in 2019; Chinese tourists accounted for 29.2% (5.09 million) of the total. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism expects total inbound visitors to surpass 18.7 million this year, setting an all‑time high (surpassing the previous 2019 record). Meanwhile, 2.467 million Koreans traveled abroad in November, bringing the January–November outbound total to 26.8 million.
