Chinese tourists have become Korea’s biggest visitors.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the number of Mainland Chinese visitors amounted to 3.92 million in 2013, rising a whopping 43.6 percent from 2012’s figure of 2.73 million. The Chinese accounted for 36.7 percent of total tourists last year, making up more than a third of Korea’s visitors from overseas. Next were the Japanese with 2.71 million visitors, whose numbers fell 22.4 percent due to the weakening yen, among other factors, followed by the U.S. (740,000) and Taiwan (560,000).

Last year was the first year in which the Chinese have become Korea’s biggest visitors. Ten years ago, in 2004, the number of Chinese visitors stood at 470,000, in third place behind Japan and the U.S. Since then, the number of inbound Chinese tourists started to increase sharply, to one million in 2008 and surpassing two million in 2011.


The Ministry of Justice attributes the drastic rise in the number of inbound Chinese tourists to a visa waiver program for transit passengers, an easing of customs procedures, the simplified evaluation process when issuing multiple-entry and electronic visas and to faster visa issuance procedures at Korean embassies and consulates in other countries.

A total of 12.2 million visitors came to Korea in 2013, from 188 nations. That’s 9.6 percent higher than the previous year. Excluding flight attendants and cabin crews, however, the number of visitors to Korea was 10.67 million last year, a 5.4 percent rise over 2012. Some 1.18 million people came to Korea as part of a tour groups, 490,000 arrived by cruise ships and 430,000 people took advantage of a visa waiver program to tour only Jeju Island. The number of tourists who came to Korea by cruise ships, in particular, jumped 116.5 percent in 2013.

“To prepare for a larger number of tourists, we will continue to improve customs services and visa issuance procedures,” said a justice ministry official. “We intend to speed up customs procedures by issuing electronic visas to visitors travelling as part of a tour group, by improving our visa issuance procedures at Korean embassies and consulates in China and by allowing more people to use automatic boarding procedures.”


The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) anticipates that 80,000 Chinese tourists will visit Korea during the Chinese New Year holidays this year from January 31 to February 6, the biggest holiday in the Chinese calendar. This is a 12-percent increase from the 71,000 during the same period last year. As part of its efforts to welcome the tourists, the KTO intends to give away coupons and souvenirs to tourists who use the Incheon International Airport between January 27 and February 5.

By Limb Jae-un
Korea.net Staff Writer
jun2@korea.kr