Seoul sees 22% rise in foreign visitors and a 60% jump in tourist spending

Data from the Seoul city government show that the capital attracted a historic 11.56 million foreign tourists during the January-August period, marking a 21.6% rise over the same span last year. Credit-card transactions by these visitors climbed 59.9% to 7.78 trillion won (about US$5.8 billion). August alone recorded 1.72 million arrivals, up 23.3% from the previous August.

Visitors from China, Japan and Taiwan together represented 66.4% of the August total, with Chinese tourists numbering 636,000, Japanese 322,000 and Taiwanese 188,000. Spending patterns revealed that shopping malls captured the largest share at 46.6%, followed by medical and wellness services (23.8%), food and beverage (13.2%) and accommodation (10.4%). Expenditures at large malls rose 77.5%, while medical tourism and dining saw increases of 64.2% and 59.5% respectively.