Korea welcomed a record number of foreign tourists in the first quarter of this year, driven by a massive influx of fans attending a landmark performance by K-pop megastar BTS in central Seoul last month, Yonhap News Agency reported.
According to
preliminary data from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, 4.76 million
foreign tourists entered the country between January and March, up 23 per cent
from the same period in 2025, the highest first-quarter figure on record.
China led inbound
travel with about 1.45 million visitors, up 29 per cent, followed by Japan with
940,000, a 20 per cent rise.
Taiwan posted the
sharpest year-on-year increase of 37.7 per cent to 540,000, while arrivals from
the Americas and Europe grew 17 per cent to 690,000.
Arrivals via regional
airports surged nearly 50 per cent to 850,000, boosting the proportion of
foreign tourists visiting local regions to 34.5 per cent.
Cruise tourism showed
a strong rebound, with 338 vessel calls at major ports, including Jeju, Busan
and Incheon, up 52.9 per cent from the same period in 2025.
Tourist spending with
foreign cards totalled 3.21 trillion won ($2.18 billion), up 23 per cent from a
year earlier, while travel satisfaction rose to 90.8 points, up 1.1 points from
89.7 a year ago, in a poll.