Busan’s Foreign Tourist Arrivals Surpass 3 Million, About Two Months Earlier Than Last Year

[Financial News] The number of foreign tourists who visited Busan from January through July this year totaled 2,927,674. Including last month’s figure, which will be officially tallied at the end of this month, the number is all but certain to surpass 3 million. This would mark the second consecutive year that the figure has exceeded 3 million.
Busan Metropolitan City said on the 4th that it had achieved 73.2% of its annual target of attracting 4 million foreign tourists in just seven months.
This represents a 46.1% increase from the 2,003,466 recorded during the same period last year, outpacing the nationwide growth rate of 21.3% by 24.8 percentage points.
A total of 507,045 foreign tourists visited Busan in July, surpassing the previous monthly record of 484,057 set in June after just one month.
Busan’s share of foreign visitors to South Korea also reached 24.2% in July, meaning that one in four foreign tourists visiting the country traveled to Busan. By country and region, Taiwan, China, Japan and the United States were the top sources of visitors to Busan, in that order.
The city is confident that the number will surpass 3 million once last month’s figure, which will be officially tallied at the end of this month, is added.
Last year was the first time the annual number of foreign visitors to Busan exceeded 3 million. The milestone was reached in October last year, but this year it is expected to come about two months earlier.
Behind this growth is Gimhae International Airport, which has established itself as a key gateway for tourism in Busan and the southeastern region.
The number of foreign visitors entering South Korea through Gimhae International Airport during the first half of this year reached 1,014,341, up 46.6% from 691,993 a year earlier and the highest among regional airports.
The key question is where visitors go after entering the country. Of the foreign visitors arriving through Gimhae International Airport, 50.2% stayed in Busan, while 47.9% traveled to nearby areas such as South Gyeongsang Province and Ulsan. Only 1.9% traveled to the Seoul metropolitan area, the lowest proportion among the four regional airports. In other words, 98.1% of arrivals remained within the southeastern region.
Spending has also increased as the number of foreign tourists has grown. Foreign card spending in Busan from January through July totaled KRW 742.3 billion, ranking second nationwide after Seoul’s KRW 6.7486 trillion. Medical tourism spending in particular rose 118.4%, ranking first and accounting for 37.0% of medical tourism spending nationwide outside Seoul.
Mayor Jeon Jae-soo said, "What matters now is not how many foreign tourists have arrived, but how long they stayed and how meaningful their experiences were. We will no longer be content with quantitative growth. Instead, we will focus the city administration’s capabilities on qualitative growth by extending stays and spreading tourism spending across local areas."
[email protected] Kwon Byung-seok Reporter