Korea National Park Service (Chairman Park Bo-hwan) announced that the number of visitors to 21 National Parks nationwide including Jirisan National Park in 2015 reached 4.533 million, which is a 2.3 % drop from the previous year.

KNPS analyzed such decline might be attributable to the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) which made people refrain from outdoor activities and an increase in the number of raining days. In addition, access restriction for safety facility maintenance due to an issue of special weather report might be a cause for the drop in the number of visitors.

In case of Seoraksan National Park, an access to a part of hiking courses including was restricted due to maintenance work in Cheonbuldong valley and Heullimgol vally, which resulted in a 22.2 % decrease in the number of visitors year-on-year.

Hallyehaesang National Park was the most visited national park last year for the first ime since the tally began. It ranked top with 7.05 million visitors, a 14.4% increase year-on year. The cable car in Odongdo, Yeosu that began to operate in December, 2014 presumably contributed to attracting visitors to the national park.

Following Hallyehaesang National Park, Bukhansan National Park came in the second place with 6.372 million visitors, followed by Mudengsan National Park with 3.61 million and Gyeongju National Park with 3.058 million visitors.

By season, people visited national parks the most in autumn, followed by spring, summer and winter. Yet, Deogyusan National Park which boasts beautiful snowy scene had the most visitors in winter. Naejangsan and Juwansangan national parks, famous for beautiful autumn leaves, were visited by people the most in autumn, while Taehanhaean National Park had the most visitors in summer. 

The number of foreigners who visited National Parks last year was 670,000; 220,000 to Hallasan (32.7%), 170,000 to Seoraksan (25.3%), 130,000 to Gyeongju (19.8%) and 40,000 to Naejangsan (6.5%). By language, 330,000 visitors (49.8%) came from Chinese-speaking regions, 160,000 (24.5%) from English-speaking regions, 140,000 (20.2%) from other language-speaking regions and 40,000 (5.5%) from Japanese-speaking regions.

“The number of visitors to National Parks in 2010 exceeded 40 million, which has slightly dropped in 2014 and 2015 after a continuous increase,” said Lee Yong-min, Director of Visitor Service Team of KNPS. “We are expecting to see an increase in the number of visitors this year,” he added.