Chinese led latest on-year jump, as plans to diversify travel strategies underway
Some 1.14 million tourists came to South Korea in February, a jump from both the same period last year and the month prior, indicating political tumult prompted by the country’s short-lived martial rule in December was not as off-putting as expected for travelers.
The 1.14 million total in February marks a 10.5 percent rise from 1.03 million a year earlier, and settles slightly above 1.12 million recorded in January.
Chinese visitors made up one-third, or 341,000, of the 1.14 million, followed by Japanese at 224,000, Taiwanese at 120,000, Americans at 72,000 and Vietnamese at 51,000, according to the latest data from the state-run Korea Tourism Organization.
Travel from China is slowly recovering to the prepandemic level seen in 2019 before COVID-19, which amounted to 453,000 in February that year.
“Compared to that, the 341,000 total in February this year seemed far behind, but it isn’t actually,” a KTO official said, adding the gap is quickly narrowing in terms of the total number of travelers.
The respective figures for all travelers to Korea for the month of February stood at about 1.2 million in 2019 and 1.14 million in 2025.
“And we have to factor in Chinese New Year,” the official said of the country’s largest holiday season, which usually is linked to the highest number of cross-border trips. The holiday fell in February in 2019, but in January in 2025, meaning Chinese travel to Korea in February this year was expected to be much lower than the prepandemic figure in the same period.
Earlier in the year, Seo Young-choong, the Korea Tourism Organization’s acting president, warned of softening demand from China, describing the escalating US-China trade spat as weighing on consumer sentiment there and hindering the KTO’s plans to attract Chinese travelers.
The KTO has said it will push hard on themed tours to appeal to countries other than China, capitalizing on a growing international trend placing Korea as a destination for beauty treatments and food.
siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com
