After Flocking to Japan, Why Are Chinese Tourists Now Choosing Korea? ... A Dramatic Reversal in Just One Year

Chinese Visitors to Korea Surge 29% in July While Travel to Japan Plummets 56.1%

Korea Overtakes Japan After One Year; Record-High 2.09 Million Inbound Travelers

Culture & Tourism Institute Cites "Chinese Government's Advisory Against Travel

In July of this year, the number of Chinese tourists who visited South Korea was 1.8 times higher than that of Chinese tourists who traveled to Japan. While last year, more Chinese tourists went to Japan than to South Korea by a significant margin, this trend has completely reversed within a year. In South Korea, the number of Chinese tourists has continued to grow at a double-digit rate, whereas in Japan, it fell to less than half. As a result, demand from Chinese travelers has diverged sharply in the tourism markets of South Korea and Japan.

Tourists waiting to enter in front of a duty-free shop in downtown Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

According to "International Tourism Trends 2026, Issue 8," published on September 14 by the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, the number of Chinese visitors to South Korea in July reached 777,000, an increase of 29.0% year-on-year. Chinese tourists made up 37.1% of all inbound travelers to South Korea, which totaled 2,093,000. During the same period, the number of Chinese visitors to Japan was 428,200, a sharp decrease of 56.1% year-on-year. In simple numeric terms, about 350,000 more Chinese tourists visited South Korea than Japan, making South Korea's scale roughly 1.8 times higher than Japan's.

The change is even starker compared to a year ago. Based on the year-on-year growth rates provided by the Institute, in July last year, around 600,000 Chinese tourists visited South Korea, while about 980,000 visited Japan. Back then, the number of Chinese tourists heading to Japan was about 1.6 times that of those going to South Korea, but this year, South Korea's figure is 1.8 times Japan's. This means that the number of visitors to South Korea grew by about 170,000, while Japan's fell by approximately 550,000, resulting in a reversal between the two countries.

The growth in Chinese tourist arrivals to South Korea stands out even when compared to pre-pandemic levels. The number of Chinese visitors in July was 149.6% of the figure for the same month in 2019, or about 50% more than before the pandemic. Taiwan's arrivals reached 229.4% of the July 2019 level. In addition to China, tourist arrivals from Taiwan increased by 30.7% compared to last year, from Hong Kong by 18.7%, the United States by 14.1%, and Japan by 10.2%. All of the top five inbound markets to South Korea saw double-digit growth.

Total inbound visitors to South Korea also hit an all-time monthly high. In July, the number of foreign visitors reached 2,093,000, up 20.8% compared to the previous year. After China, visitors from Japan numbered 330,000, from Taiwan 261,000, from the United States 150,000, and from Hong Kong 76,000. From January to July, the cumulative total reached 12,803,000 visitors, which is a 21.3% increase year-on-year and a 29.5% jump compared to the same period in 2019.

The overall inbound tourism market in Japan is not stagnating across the board. In July, Japan hosted 3,442,000 foreign visitors, a rise of 0.1% year-on-year and still well ahead of South Korea's total inbound figures. Even as the number of Chinese tourists plummeted, arrivals from South Korea and Taiwan both surged. The number of South Korean travelers to Japan reached 894,700 in July, up 31.9% year-on-year, while Taiwanese visitors totaled 763,800, an increase of 26.4%. Both figures marked all-time highs for the month of July and, in some cases, for any month.

Looking solely at the total inbound figures, Japan still leads overall. In July, the number of foreign visitors to Japan stood at 3,442,000, about 1,350,000 more than South Korea's 2,093,000. The most notable shift in this data, however, is not an overall reversal in tourism leadership, but rather the sharply contrasting trends in Chinese tourist flows to South Korea and Japan.

The Korea Culture and Tourism Institute cited the Chinese government's recommendation to refrain from traveling to Japan as a key reason for the sharp fall in Chinese tourist arrivals to Japan. In fact, the number of Chinese visitors to Japan in July decreased by 56.1% year-on-year, a continuing downward trend. On the other hand, Chinese tourist arrivals to South Korea that month increased by 29.0% year-on-year, and compared to the same month in 2019, they reached 149.6% of pre-pandemic levels, considerably surpassing the pre-COVID figures.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.