South Korea saw a huge surge in foreign tourist arrivals in March, with visitation up 26.7% year-on-year and 33.2% higher than the same month in 2019.
The strong result has been attributed in part to the comeback of K-pop supergroup BTS, who performed for the first time in four years at Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square on 21 March.
March saw a total of 2.04 million foreign visitors according to data from the Korea Tourism Organization, with China contributing the largest share at 501,000 followed by Japan with 482,000. These represented increases of 2.8% and 8.4% respectively over March 2019.
Arrivals from Taiwan were also up 95% to 192,000, from Vietnam up 59% to 75,000 and from the USA up 81% to 152,000.
Outbound travel also increased, rising 4.4% year-on-year to 2,293,716. Forn the first three months of 2026 combined, a total of 8.33 million Koreans travelled abroad, up 5.9% compared with the same period in 2019.
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