S.Korea sees foreign visitors 95% of pre-pandemic

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) announced on Friday that the number of foreign tourists visiting South Korea in May was 1.42 million, an increase of 63.6% year over year. 

This is 95% of the level seen in the same month of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

By country, China had the most foreign tourists with 395,000 visitors, followed by Japan (278,000), the US (123,000), and Taiwan (117,000).

The number of visitors from the US and Taiwan increased by 28.1% and 14.9%, respectively, compared to the same month in 2019.

Japan recovered by 97% of the level, while China reached 79%.

The cumulative number of visitors to South Korea from January to May this year was 6.28 million, an increase of 81.1% compared to the same period last year. This is 90% of the level in the same period of 2019.

China (1.82 million), Japan (1.17 million), Taiwan (540,000), the US (490,000), and the Philippines (200,000) recorded the highest number of tourists.

Write to Sun A Lee at suna@hankyung.com