In the first nine months of the year, the number of tourists visiting South Korea soared by 15.4 percent to 10,680,067 from 9,251,076 in the same period last year, the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) said Monday.
Chinese took the lion's share of 43.9 percent or 4,683,415 visitors, up 36.5 percent from a year earlier.
However, the number of Japanese visitors decreased by 15.7 percent to 1,740,079 because of a weak yen and Seoul-Tokyo diplomatic row over historical and territorial issues, the KBO said.
The comparable figure stood at 404,791 visitors from Hong Kong, up 43.2 percent from a year earlier; 324,603 from Thailand, up 23.7 percent; and 164,766 from Russia, up 26.4 percent.
South Korea is expected to achieve 11.9 percent growth in foreign tourist arrivals this year, the KTO said.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
