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| Japanese tourists walk in the tourism and shopping district of Myeong-dong in central Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap |
By Lee Hae-rin
Korea's tourism industry is steadily recovering from the blow dealt by the COVID-19 pandemic. A large part of this recovery is Japanese tourists who account for the largest cohort of travelers to the country during the first two months of 2023, the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) said, Thursday.
In February, the number of inbound global tourists to Korea almost quadrupled, compared to the same period last year, with over 479,000 visitors, according to the KTO's tourism statistics.
About one out of five was from Japan. Over 94,000 Japanese visited Korea last month, which is a whopping 3,117 percent increase from February last year.
Korea saw nearly a 400 percent jump in inbound travelers with over 914,000 foreigners visiting the country from January to February in 2023. Japan ranked top among visiting countries for two months consecutively with 161,000 travelers.
The KTO explained that the resumption of the visa waiver on short-term arrivals from Japan and the increase in the number of flights between the two countries contributed to the influx of travelers from the country. The number of flights between Korea and Japan last month increased by 1,180 percent compared to the same period last year.
Japanese travelers choose to visit Korea based on their interest in Korean culture, Jung Na-ri, the deputy director of KTO's Japan team, told The Korea Times, Thursday.
"Japanese visitors of diverse generations and backgrounds who watched Korean drama series and films on Netflix during the pandemic have chosen to visit Korea based on their interests in Korea," Jung said.
Meanwhile, Korea was top among visitors to Japan with over 568,600 Korean travelers in February, comprising 38.5 percent of Japan's 1.47 million monthly tourist arrivals, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO).
To attract more Japanese travelers to Korea, the KTO will launch several Korean culture-related online campaigns and promotion events in celebration of the 20th anniversary of "hallyu," or the Korean wave, in Japan. "Winter Sonata" was first aired on NHK in 2003 and resulted in the first Korean drama boom there.
A K-Tourism Road Show will be held in April in five Japanese cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Hiroshima and Nagoya. Lee Do-hyun who starred in Netflix's "The Glory" will attend the event in Tokyo, Jung explained.
Japan also ranks highest among visiting countries in terms of retention rate, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's latest survey on inbound tourism. The KTO and Korea Airport Corp. (KAC) seek to attract Japanese travelers to regional destinations other than Seoul by making domestic travel more convenient, the two parties said.
More Japanese travelers are expected to visit Korea when the Japanese government downgrades the coronavirus' infectious disease level and lifts hygiene rules and indoor mask-wearing mandates, the KTO's Japan team predicts.
The government announced on Wednesday that it will simplify entry procedures for travelers from 22 countries by operating a visa waiver so as to revitalize tourism and encourage domestic spending.
According to KTO statistics, the U.S. (46,200), China (45,900) and Vietnam (28,800) made up the top four in terms of the number of travelers visiting Korea in February. Among them, China's figure is a 173.9 percent increase from February last month.
Korea saw a 1,430 percent increase in outbound tourism from February last year, with over 172.5 million Koreans traveling abroad. The figure is 330,000 more than January's 139.3 million.
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