The number of foreign tourists last month exceeded a million for the first time since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) on Aug. 29 said an estimated 1,032,188 travelers from abroad visited the country in July based on the latest tourism data, up 71% from the same month in 2019 and a 291% jump from July last year. This is the first time for the figure to break the million mark since the pandemic's outbreak.
By country, China sent the most visitors with 224,805. The KTO said that between May and last month, the number of such visitors jumped more than 10-fold to accelerate the recovery of domestic tourism.
Japanese ranked second with 211,468, followed by Americans with 104,823 and Taiwanese 103,566, with the number of visitors from Taiwan jumping an insane 58 times.
Meanwhile, the number of Koreans who traveled abroad last month reached an estimated 2,153,857, a 219.6% jump from July last year and around 82% of the figure in the same month of 2019.
