The National Museum of Korea on Oct. 15 reached five million visitors for the year for the first time. Shown are visitors on Aug. 20 viewing items at the museum's souvenir shop in Seoul's Yongsan-gu District. (Lee Jeongwoo)

By Charles Audouin

The National Museum of Korea (NMK) on Oct. 17 announced that it received 5,016,382 visitors this year as of Oct. 15.

This is the first time for the museum to see annual attendance surpass five million, with the Oct. 15 figure surging 69.7% from 2,955,789 over the same period last year.

Since this year started, the number of visitors to the NMK has steadily increased with monthly attendance exceeding 500,000 each in January and February. In August, the sum soared to 864,977 as summer vacation for students overlapped with the traditional holiday season.

The museum said, "The surge was apparently driven by college students and young visitors."

The number of foreign visitors to the museum also continued to rise to 187,705 this year as of Oct. 15, and is expected to surpass last year's record high.

If this pace continues through year's end, the NMK is likely to rank among the world's five most visited museums. The British publication Art Newspaper said only four museums attracted over five million visitors last year: the Louvre in Paris, Vatican Museums, British Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The NMK also saw more visitors to its affiliate museums in the provinces. As of Oct. 4, combined attendance at the main museum and its 13 affiliates reached 11,296,254, near the cumulative attendance of games of the professional Korean Baseball Organization (12,312,519).

The museum attributed the surge in visitors to the renovation of its exhibition spaces, development of sensory-rich content and expansion of interactive programs.

NMK Director You Hong-june said, "With the spread of K-culture, both domestic and international interest in traditional culture has grown to raise the number of visitors to the museum to a level comparable to that of fans of professional baseball."

caudouin@korea.kr