SEOUL, 28th September, 2026 (WAM) -- More than 15 million foreign tourists visited the Republic of Korea in the first eight months of this year.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organisation said on Monday that a total of 15.05 million visitors arrived between January and August, up 21.6 percent from the same period last year, when 12.38 million foreign tourists were recorded. August alone saw a monthly record of 2.25 million visitors.
Foreign tourists spent 14 trillion won (US$10.3 billion) on tourism-related card transactions during the first eight months of the year, a 48.5 percent increase from the same period in 2025 and the highest figure since data collection began.
Meanwhile, the number of Korean tourists travelling overseas reached 19.81 million between January and August this year, equivalent to 98.7 percent of the level recorded in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.