According to the data compiled by Bank of Korea (BOK) and the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, South Korea posted a US$776 billion surplus in tourism in September.
The tourism balance has been in the red since June 2012.
The nation's tourism revenue also hit a record high of $1,765.4 billion in September, up 35 percent or $450.8 million from the same month last year.
In September, the number of Chinese tourist arrivals totaled 564,078, up 16.7 percent from a year earlier. The figure accounted for 45.3 percent of the total arrivals, the data said.
In the first nine months of this year, Chinese visitors totaled 4.68 million in number, or 43.9 percent of the total.
In 2013, Chinese arrivals constituted 35.5 percent of the total, up from 25.5 percent in the previous year.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
