Number of foreign tourists to S. Korea soars 26 pct in August

SEOUL, Sept. 21 (Yonhap) -- The number of foreigners who visited South Korea rose 26.1 percent in August from a year earlier due to a base effect after visits by Chinese tourists plunged last year in the face of a diplomatic row, the tourism promotion agency here said Friday.

A total of 1.39 million foreigners visited South Korea last month, up from the 1.1 million tallied the same month a year earlier, according to the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO).

The number of Chinese tourists, among others, shot up 40.9 percent.

In March last year, China banned group tours to South Korea in retaliation for Seoul's deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system. The ban was partially lifted later that year.

The number of visitors from Japan jumped 38.9 percent on-year during the cited period. The KTO attributed the sharp increase to people traveling during a Japanese holiday and top K-pop act BTS' two-day concert in Seoul late last month.

Meanwhile, the number of outbound South Korean tourists came to 2.52 million in August, up 5.6 percent from a year ago, it said.

scaaet@yna.co.kr
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