Two tourists on April 20 explore Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul's Jongno-gu District. (Korea.net DB)

By Lee Jihae

The four royal palaces in Seoul, Jongmyo Shrine and the National Museum of Korea saw growth in the number of visitors in the first half of this year.

The Royal Palaces and Tombs Center, an affiliate of the Korea Heritage Service, on July 16 quoted tentative data saying the four palaces of the Joseon Dynasty -- Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung and Deoksugung -- and Jongmyo from January to June attracted a tentative 7,410,945 visitors, up 6.6% from 6,949,465 year on year.

Gyeongbokgung was the most popular palace with 3,645,418 visitors. The Gwanghwamun area in front of the palace was also a hot spot on March 21, when K-pop supernova BTS held its comeback concert there.

Second in attendance was Deoksugung (1,751,869), followed by Changdeokgung (1,053,301) and Changgyeonggung (610,841). The figure for Jongmyo, which typically employs a reservation-only system, was 349,516.

The months of April and May saw the most visitors to the palaces and the shrine.

A combined 2,267,964 people from abroad visited the palaces in the first half of the year, accounting for 30.6% of the total, with the majority 1,631,295 opting for Gyeongbokgung.

The National Museum of Korea also attracted a record-high number of visitors in the first six months of the year.

Its figure of 3,795,400 was a 39.7% jump from 2,716,323 in the first half of last year, the first time for the museum to break three million visitors for the period, surpassing its total of 3,788,785 for all of 2024.

In anticipation of a surge of visitors during summer vacation, the museum will stay open daily for an additional hour from July 27 to Aug. 17.

Thus its operating hours over this 22-day period will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. instead of 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

jihlee08@korea.kr