More foreigners visit S. Korea via non-capital region: data

This photo shows people visiting the Saetdorimul, a spring on Jeju Island. (Yonhap)

An increasing percentage of foreign visitors to South Korea are opting to use air and sea ports in areas outside of the Greater Seoul region of Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, government data showed Wednesday.

According to the Korea Tourism Organization, data showed that 74.4 percent of the foreign visitors who entered the country in the first half of this year used Incheon International Airport, Incheon Port and Gimpo International Airport, which are located in the country's gateway city of Incheon and Seoul.

While the overwhelming majority of the 5.72 million visitors still entered via Seoul and Incheon, entries dropped 8.9 percentage points compared to the H1 of 2023.

In contrast, foreigners who used Jeju International Airport and Jeju Port, on Juju Island, accounted for 8.2 percent of all visitors in H1 this year. This marked a substantial increase from 3.6 percent last year.

The percentage of foreigners who entered the country through the southeastern region stayed the same as H1 last year, with 9.6 percent of visitors using Gimhae International Airport and Busan Port.

The remaining 7.8 percent used other air and sea ports to enter the country, which more than doubled from 3.6 percent in H1 of 2023.

South Korea has been seeking to attract more foreign tourists to the regions outside Seoul and Gyeonggi Provinces, which remains by far the most popular region for international tourists. According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's report in October, 82.4 percent of foreign tourists visited Seoul -- over four times more than any other region.

Overcentralization of tourism in Greater Seoul has been a chronic issue for both foreign and domestic tourists. The KTO data showed that 630 million people visited Gyeonggi Province and 596 million people visited Seoul for tourism in 2023, which is far more than the next most popular region of North Gyeongsang Province -- which had 180 million visitors.

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)