SEOUL, July 23 (AJP) - Nearly nine in 10 foreign visitors to South Korea in June traveled for tourism, driving monthly arrivals to nearly 2 million while business, official and study-related travel remained comparatively subdued, the Korea Tourism Organization said Thursday.
Korea received 1,993,128 foreign visitors during the month, up 23.1 percent from 1,619,220 a year earlier. The total reached 135 percent of its June 2019 level, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted international travel.
Tourism accounted for 1,731,508 arrivals, or 86.9 percent of the total, after rising 26.3 percent from a year earlier. By comparison, business arrivals increased 3 percent to 12,797, official visits slipped 0.2 percent to 6,257, and arrivals for study and training fell 12 percent to 25,582.
China remained South Korea's largest source market with nearly 650,000 visitors, followed by Japan with 348,000, Taiwan with 223,000, the United States with 178,000 and Hong Kong with 66,000. Together, the five markets accounted for nearly three-quarters of all foreign arrivals in June.
Arrivals from China and Japan recovered to 136.8 percent and 123.3 percent, respectively, of their June 2019 levels.
Women accounted for about 60 percent of all foreign arrivals. Female visitor numbers rose 27.5 percent from a year earlier to 1,202,181, outpacing a 17 percent increase among men to 654,363. A further 136,584 arrivals were recorded as airline or ship crew members.
Korea welcomed 10.71 million foreign visitors in the first half of the year, up 21.3 percent from a year earlier. Chinese visitors totaled 3.21 million, accounting for about 30 percent of all arrivals during the period.
Meanwhile, Koreans made 2,004,723 overseas trips in June, down 10 percent from a year earlier and equivalent to 80.3 percent of the June 2019 level. First-half outbound travel reached 14.96 million, recovering to 99.7 percent of its pre-pandemic level.
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