Busan is on course toward an era of 4 million foreign tourists this year. Beyond an increase in visitors, tourist spending has risen to second nationwide, accelerating a qualitative shift in the tourism industry from a "city that draws many visitors" to a "city where visitors spend money."
According to the Busan Metropolitan Government on Sunday, 1,936,572 foreign tourists visited the city from January to May this year. That marks a 40% increase from 1,383,758 during the same period last year. The growth rate is 19 percentage points higher than the national average of 21%, and already represents 48.4% of this year's target of 4 million foreign tourists.
By country and region, the largest numbers came from Taiwan (375,322), China (359,981), Japan (233,685) and the United States (170,587).
The expansion of the tourism market was led by a recovery in the Chinese market. While the growth of Chinese tourists has slowed nationwide, Busan drew 89,275 Chinese tourists in May alone, up 22.7% from the previous month and 94% from the same month last year. In particular, Chinese arrivals through the Port of Busan reached 26,556, a more than nine-fold surge from a year earlier.
This is analyzed as the effect of Busan's strategy of operating the international passenger terminal around the clock, a national first, to accommodate overnight (two-day, one-night) cruise arrivals, and actively developing tourism products combining home-port cruises linked with air and rail connections with local festivals.
Beyond the traditional East Asian market, the long-haul tourism market is also expanding rapidly. U.S. tourists increased 80.1% from last year, while European tourists from France (89.2%) and the United Kingdom (44.7%) also posted large gains. This is attributed to Busan's strengthened overseas marketing through global media promotion including CNN, as well as tie-ups with online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Agoda and Trip.com.
Notably, the increase in visitors is leading to expanded spending. According to the Korea Tourism Organization's Tourism Data Lab, Busan's foreign tourism spending has ranked second nationwide (first outside the greater Seoul area) since March, behind Seoul. Foreign tourism spending in May reached 132.2 billion won, more than 2.5 times the figure in January this year, while cumulative spending from January to May came to 454.4 billion won.
Extended-stay tourism using Korean Wave content is also producing results. In a survey conducted at the "BTS THE CITY Arirang Busan Welcome Center" held last month, 46% of foreign visitors were repeat visitors to Busan, and 40.2% stayed long-term for four nights or more. In addition, 59.1% of respondents cited traditional markets as their main shopping destination, indicating that Korean Wave content is connecting to consumption at local commercial districts.
In the second half of the year, the city plans to expand collaboration with global travel platforms and speed up efforts to attract foreign tourists by promoting the "Visit Busan Pass," introducing amphibious buses and marine tourism taxis, and expanding cruise tourism. The city's strategy is to intensively foster extended-stay tourism products linked to the Busan Fireworks Festival, the "Starry Sea Busan Night Festa" and large-scale gourmet events, thereby simultaneously increasing tourists' length of stay and spending.
Na Yun-bin, director general of the city's tourism and MICE bureau, said, "With the surpassing of 2 million foreign tourists in sight and tourism spending rising to second nationwide, we are seeing a very encouraging trend." He added, "We will further strengthen our tourism competitiveness so that we can open the era of 4 million foreign tourists early this year."
