April 24, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] The number of foreigners who visited Korea spiked 24.4 percent in July from a year earlier on eased inter-Korean tensions and more tourists from China, the tourism promotion agency said on Aug. 23.

A total of 1.25 million foreigners visited Korea last month, up from 1 million tallied the same month a year earlier, according to the Korea Tourism Organization.

The number of Chinese tourists shot up 45.9 percent on-year in July due to a base effect. In March last year, China banned group tours to Korea in retaliation for Seoul’s deployment of a US anti-missile system. The ban has been partially lifted since later that year.

The number of visitors from Japan surged 35.1 percent on-year, with that of tourists from the rest of Asia and the Middle East climbing 13 percent.

The tourism promotion agency attributed the growth to the stable inter-Korean relations.

Meanwhile, the number of Korean outbound tourists came to 2.49 million in July, up 4.4 percent from a year ago, according to the KTO.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)