The number of foreign tourists from January to November this year reached 9.95 million, a 275.9% jump from the same period last year. Shown are two visitors on Dec. 24 on Namsan Mountain in Seoul's Jung-gu District. (Yonhap News)

By Park Hye Ri

The number of foreign tourists in the first 11 months of this year skyrocketed 275.9% from the same period last year.

Citing domestic tourism statistics from last month, the Korea Tourism Organization on Dec. 28 said 9.99 million foreign visitors came between January and November, up 62% from the same period in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

By country, Japan sent the most travelers with 2,120,000, followed by China with 1,766,000, the U.S. 1,008,000, Taiwan 880,000 and Vietnam 390,000.

Last month saw 1,115,000 foreign tourists, a 142.4% surge year on year and the second-best performance of 2023 after that of October.

Japanese also led all nationalities last month in the number of foreign visitors with 278,000, a record high for the month and up 61.4% from November 2019, followed by China with 221,000, the U.S. 93,000, Taiwan 86,000 and Singapore 44,000.

The number of Koreans traveling abroad last month rose 98% to 2,062,000, recovering to 95% of the figure in November 2019. The figure for this year's first 11 months reached 20.3 million.

hrhr@korea.kr