The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Oct. 22 in a report said the number of foreign tourists in the first three quarters of this year reached 17.11 million. Shown is a visitor interacting with a merchant at a market using the multilingual translation function of the AI Tourist Butler, an artificial intelligence-powered app. (Korea Tourism Organization)
By Xu Aiying
The number of foreign tourists in the first three quarters of the year reached 17.11 million, meaning the all-time annual record of 18.94 million set last year could fall as early as this month.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Oct. 22 said this in its September report on domestic tourism trends.
The number of foreign visitors reached 2.06 million last month, up 21.1% year on year, and the fifth time for monthly arrivals to break two million this year after March, April, July and August.
By country, China sent the most visitors over the period with 5.47 million, up 29.2%, followed by Japan with 3.12 million (16.9%), Taiwan 1.86 million (32.4%) and Hong Kong 550,000 (18.6%). Arrivals from the Americas rose 12% to 1.62 million and those from Europe grew 20% to 1.19 million.
Driven by the increase in tourist numbers, their consumption also rose. Credit and debit card spending on tourism-related activities reached KRW 15.94 trillion in the first nine months of the year, a 47.7% jump from KRW 10.79 trillion year on year.
The number of such visitors entering through regional air hubs and ports also expanded. A combined 3.24 million of them, up 37.4% year on year, arrived via provincial airports like those in Gimhae, Gyeongsangnam-do Province; Jeju Island; Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do Province; and Daegu.
Arrivals at ports including those in Busan; Jeju City and Seogwipo on Jeju Island; Yeosu, Jeollanam-do Province; and Gunsan, Jeollabuk-do Province, rose 14.5% to 1.58 million.
Visitors arriving through such airports accounted for 19% of all inbound tourists and those doing so at regional ports 9.2%. Combined, the two methods accounted for 28.2% of all foreign arrivals.
xuaiy@korea.kr
