APD | Foreign visitors to South Korea up 14 percent in August

By APD writer Alice

The number of foreign tourists visiting South Korea in August rose 14 percent from a year ago to nearly 1.6 million, data released by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) showed on September 23.

By country and territory, 578,112 Chinese arrived here last month, followed by 329,652 from Japan, 109,273 from Taiwan, 86,586 from the United States and 65,958 from Hong Kong, the data showed.

Arrivals from China rose 20.9 percent on-year thanks to an increase in family and group summer vacation travel, KTO officials said.

Visitors from Japan increased 4.6 percent on-year in August but the growth rate noticeably slowed from the corresponding figure of 19.2 percent in July, reflecting the aftereffects of strained diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo over historical issues and bilateral trade conflict.

Visitors from other Asian countries and the Middle East went up 12.9 percent last month.

Meanwhile, the number of South Koreans travelling overseas declined 3.7 percent on-year to 2.43 million in August, according to the KTO data.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)