Recently, the number of foreign tourists visiting Korea has increased due to K-pop and movies, but i..

Japan’s tourism income is only KRW 77 trillion\n Korea’s KRW 23 trillion

사진 확대 On the 2nd, a day after the Chuseok holiday, the streets of Myeong-dong, Seoul, are crowded with foreign tourists and citizens. [Photo source = Yonhap News]

Recently, the number of foreign tourists visiting Korea has increased due to K-pop and movies, but it is less than half of Japan. As tourism income is more than three times higher in Japan, there are opinions that various tourism markets should be set up.

According to data recently submitted by Lim Oh-kyung, a member of the ruling party of the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, from the Korea Tourism Organization, 16.37 million foreign tourists visited Korea last year. The figure is less than half of that of Japan (36.87 million) during the same period.

Looking at the Asia-Pacific region, Japan had the largest number of tourists. Thailand (35.55 million), Saudi Arabia (29.73 million), Malaysia (25.2 million), Hong Kong (21.94 million), Vietnam (17.47 million), and Korea (16.37 million).

The gap in tourism income also shows a big difference. Japan earned 54.7 billion dollars (about 77.6904 trillion won), while Korea only earned 16.4 billion dollars (about 23.2929 trillion won) during the same period. It is the 12th in the Asia-Pacific region.

Last year, the number of overseas tourists worldwide was 1,464.98 million (tentative), up 12.2% from the previous year. France (120 million) was the most visited tourist destination in the world. Spain (93.76 million), the United States (72.39 million), Turkiye (60.58 million), and Italy (57.73 million).

In terms of tourism revenue, the U.S. had the largest amount of $215 billion (about 305.364 trillion won). It was followed by 106.5 billion dollars in Spain (about 151.2619 trillion won), 84.5 billion dollars in the UK (about 121.2936 trillion won), 77.1 billion dollars in France (about 109.5051 trillion won), and 58.7 billion dollars in Italy (about 83.3716 trillion won).

Representative Lim said, “The number of foreign tourists (inbound) increased 48.4% year-on-year last year, but tourism income only increased 9.2%,” adding, “We need to strengthen target marketing by market in consideration of diversifying the tourism market.”