The number of foreign tourists who visited South Korea last month rose more than 20% from a year earlier.
A total of 2,093,223 foreign visitors came to South Korea in July, up 20.8% from 1,733,199 in the same month last year, according to the Korea Tourism Organization's July 2026 tourism statistics released on the 25th. The figure was 144.6% of the level seen in July 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic. Cumulative arrivals for January through July reached 12,803,142, up 21.3% from the same period last year and 129.5% of the level in the same period of 2019.
China was the largest source market. Chinese visitors to South Korea numbered 776,639 in July, up 29.0% from the same month last year. Japan followed with 330,385, up 10.2%, and Taiwan with 260,532, up 30.7%.
Compared with pre-pandemic levels, Taiwan showed a particularly sharp increase. Taiwanese arrivals climbed to 229.4% of the July 2019 level. Non-Chinese Greater China visitors, combining Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, also totaled 343,000, reaching 193.1% of the same month in 2019. China recovered to 149.6% and the United States to 154.4%.
China was also the largest market on a cumulative basis. Chinese tourists numbered 3,988,430 from January through July this year, up 27.5% from the same period last year. Japan followed with 2,280,159, Taiwan with 1,410,978, the United States with 962,423 and Hong Kong with 416,888. Among these, Taiwan posted the highest growth rate of any major market at 32.9%.
Demand for overseas travel by South Koreans, by contrast, slowed over the same period. South Koreans traveling abroad numbered 2,419,457 in July, down 0.7% from a year earlier and 91.6% of the July 2019 level. Cumulative overseas travelers for January through July, however, reached 17.38 million, recovering to 98.5% of the level in the same period of 2019.
