Tourism from U.S., Taiwan tops pre-pandemic levels in first 4 months

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Tourism from U.S., Taiwan tops pre-pandemic levels in first 4 months

Published: 13 Jun. 2024, 19:29

JIN EUN-SOO
jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr

Foreign tourists crowd the popular shopping district of Myeongdong in central Seoul, in this file photo taken May 1, 2024. [YONHAP]

The number of foreigners visiting Korea rebounded to nearly 89 percent of pre-pandemic levels in the first four months of this year, with arrivals from certain countries such as the United States and Taiwan surpassing those levels, the state-run tourism promotion agency said Thursday.

Korea welcomed 4.866 million international tourists from January to April, marking an 86.9 percent increase from the same period a year ago and recovering to 88.8 percent of pre-Covid-19 levels, according to the Korea Tourism Organization.

Notably, Taiwan and the United States have exceeded their pre-pandemic tourist numbers by 7.5 percent and 19.5 percent, respectively. Tourists from Indonesia and Singapore also reached 110.4 percent and 157.4 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

The rebound in tourist arrivals from China and Japan, the top two countries in Korea's inbound tourism rankings, is still relatively slow, having recovered to only 78.1 percent and 82.5 percent of pre-pandemic numbers, respectively.

However, these numbers are expected to rise with an expansion in international flight routes and a scheduled increase in flights in the second half of the year.

The annual number of arrivals declined sharply from 17.5 million in 2019 to 2.52 million in 2020 and further to 970,000 in 2021 amid the pandemic. However, as the country began to lift most of its restrictions in 2022, arrivals started to rebound, reaching 3.2 million that year and surpassing 10 million in 2023.

The Seoul government has set an ambitious target of attracting 20 million foreign tourists this year as the global popularity of Korean pop culture continues to drive interest in tourism.

The tourism industry expects the goal could be attained if the current trend picks up speed, although it is acknowledged as a challenging target.

Yonhap