2026: Record-Breaking 2 Million Foreign Tourists Visit Korea – What’s Driving This Surge?

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Record First-Quarter High for Foreign Tourists to South Korea[Yonhap News file photo][Yonhap News file photo]

More than 2 million visitors traveled to South Korea last month. The Korea Tourism Organization reported that 2,045,992 foreign tourists visited in March, a 26.7% increase from the same month a year earlier. That total is also 33.2% higher than March 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. China topped the list with about 501,000 visitors, followed by Japan, Taiwan, the United States, and Vietnam. Taiwan, the U.S., and Vietnam showed especially strong growth compared with 2019. Analysts say a big part of the surge came from global fans flying in for BTS’s comeback shows. BTS dropped their fifth studio album, Arirang, last month and staged comeback performances around Gwanghwamun in Seoul. Meanwhile, 2,293,716 Koreans traveled abroad during the same period, a 4.4% increase, and cumulative outbound travel for the first quarter reached 8.33 million. #tourists #BTS #KoreaTourismOrganization Yonhap News TV — Tips and inquiries: KakaoTalk/Line jebo23 Kim Do-heon (dohoney@yna.co.kr)