[Edaily Kang Gyeong-rok Travel Reporter] The number of foreign tourists visiting South Korea has surpassed 20 million for the first time in history. Demand for travel to South Korea has increased not only from Asia, including China, but also from the Americas and Europe. If this trend continues, the total is projected to exceed 23 million by the end of this year. Analysts say the government’s goal of attracting 30 million foreign tourists by 2029 is now within reach.
However, the cumulative tourism balance deficit through September of this year stood at $2.2096 billion, a decrease of only about 71% compared to the same period last year ($7.5873 billion). The tourism balance, which had turned to a surplus in June, has been in the red for three consecutive months since July. Some point out that if the tourism market cannot overcome the structural limitations lurking behind this outward growth, the goal of 30 million foreign visitors to Korea could remain a pipe dream.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 12th that the cumulative number of international visitors to South Korea this year has surpassed 20 million for the first time in history. This marks the first time in 14 years since the 10-million mark was reached in 2012, and it is the second consecutive year that the record has been broken, following last year’s figure of 18.94 million. Of the 3.03 million additional international visitors to Korea from January through September this year, approximately 1.24 million were Chinese. Taiwan and Japan also drove demand for travel to Korea, with cumulative totals of 1.86 million and 3.12 million, respectively. Visitors from the Americas (1.62 million) and Europe (1.19 million) surpassed their total figures for all of 2019 within just the first nine months of this year.

As the number of foreign tourists visiting Korea increased, so did their spending. From January through September of this year, card payments by foreign tourists totaled 15.9416 trillion won, a sharp increase of approximately 48% compared to the same period last year. The average card payment per person also rose by 165,000 won, from 767,000 won last year to 932,000 won this year.
On the other hand, the tourism balance of payments remains mired in deficit. The tourism deficit, which stood at $8.5 billion in 2019—before the COVID-19 pandemic—continued to climb through the pandemic, reaching $10.4 billion in 2023 and $10.2 billion in 2024, before soaring to $10.8 billion last year. This year, the monthly tourism balance returned to a deficit starting in July, with the deficit widening to $498 million in September. Since the amount spent by South Koreans on overseas travel far exceeds the money spent by foreign visitors in the country, analysts note that a hollow deficit structure is becoming entrenched even amid the “20-million-tourist era.”

Regional imbalances also remain a challenge to be addressed. Through September of this year, 4.82 million foreign visitors—accounting for 28.2% of the total—entered the country via airports and seaports outside the Seoul metropolitan area. The number of arrivals at regional airports such as Gimhae, Jeju, Cheongju, and Daegu increased by more than 37% compared to a year ago.
However, there is still a lack of objective data to verify whether this diversification of entry routes has directly translated into actual revenue for local lodging and restaurants. Current statistics only count the number of people who simply passed through airports and seaports; they do not include the actual number of days these visitors stayed in regional areas or their spending by region. Critics point out that, due to the limitations of a transportation network centered on the Seoul metropolitan area and monotonous infrastructure, regional areas remain mere gateways through which foreign tourists briefly pass.
Yoon Hye-jin, a professor in the Department of Tourism Development at Kyonggi University, emphasized, “For tourism demand entering through regional airports to translate into local commercial consumption, the length of stay must be extended,” adding, “We must develop community-based content and build transportation networks, while also devising measures to improve financial performance by calculating objective indicators of length of stay and consumption.”