“In the first half of this year, the number of foreign tourists visiting South Korea reached 8.83 million, recovering to the level of 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, as reported by Yonhap News. Compared to the same period last year, this represents a 14.6% increase.
According to the ‘June 2025 Korea Tourism Statistics’ released by the Korea Tourism Organization on the 31st, a total of 8,825,967 foreign tourists visited South Korea from January to June. This figure has recovered to 104.6% of the level seen in the first half of 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
By country, the largest number of tourists came from China, with 2.53 million, followed by Japan (1.62 million), Taiwan (860,000), the United States (730,000), and the Philippines (310,000).
During the same period, 14.56 million South Koreans traveled overseas, recovering to 97.0% of the number seen in the first half of 2019.
In June alone, 1.62 million foreigners visited South Korea, a 14.2% increase compared to the same month last year. The number of visitors by country was China (477,000), Japan (287,000), the United States (166,000), Taiwan (165,000), and Hong Kong (56,000).
Meanwhile, in June, 2.23 million South Koreans traveled abroad.”