Complaints from tourists visiting South Korea have already hit an all-time high, just seven months into the year, with reckless taxi driving, poor accommodation and overcharging at stores the top gripes.
From January to July, 1,753 tourism complaints were filed nationwide, already surpassing the 1,744 logged for all of 2025, the Korea Tourism Organization said, citing figures released Sunday from its Korea Tourism Data Lab.
The figures are compiled from reports submitted through the Tourist Complaint Center website and the Korea Travel Hotline, 1330, a service used mainly by foreign visitors who face language barriers when filing complaints or protests directly.
Complaints over unfair cancellation penalties at accommodations have flared repeatedly around major events, including concerts by BTS, and industry watchers say fixing the underlying service problems is key to sustaining the country's tourism boom.
Complaints have climbed sharply since bottoming out during the pandemic. The tally rose from 288 in 2022 to 902 in 2023, then to 1,543 in 2024 and 1,744 last year. Before the pandemic, complaints topped 1,000 for two straight years, reaching 1,263 in 2018 — the first year data was collected — and 1,165 in 2019, before plunging to 364 in 2020, 119 in 2021 and 288 in 2022 amid pandemic-related travel curbs.
By region, Seoul recorded the most complaints this year, with 665, followed by Busan with 594, Incheon with 176 and Jeju Island with 155.
Busan's total surged to nearly 2.5 times the 239 complaints logged in the same period last year, coinciding with the BTS concert there in June, which drew about 110,000 visitors to the city.
By category, complaints tied to general lodging — including unilateral booking cancellations and excessive penalty fees — topped the list with 500 cases, followed by shopping-related complaints such as rude service and price disputes with 376. Complaints over airport and airline services totaled 186, followed by taxi-related complaints such as meter refusals and reckless driving at 182, and hotel-related complaints, including unilateral cancellations and poor service or hygiene, at 146.
By nationality, complainants from China accounted for the largest share with 680, followed by South Koreans with 276, Japanese with 263, Taiwanese with 182 and Hong Kong residents with 87.
The rise comes as South Korea's tourism industry enjoys a boom, with inbound arrivals topping 10 million for the first time in the first half of the year and the country's tourism balance posting a surplus for several months.
gypark@heraldcorp.com
