[2026 Parliamentary Audit] Foreign visitors hit 18.94 million, but stays shortened by 1.3 days... Tourism complaints also surge

Visitors to Korea rose 71.7% from 2023 to 2025... Per-person spending on accommodation and dining fell by around 17%
Jung Yeonwook: "Length of stay and repeat visits matter more than 30 million visitors"... Urges discussion on establishing a tourism ad

The number of foreign visitors to Korea reached a record high, but the average length of stay and per-person spending on accommodation and dining actually declined. Cruise tourists have limited opportunities to spend in local communities because of short port calls, while demand for medical tourism is concentrated in Seoul. With complaints about inconveniences faced by tourists also surging, lawmakers at a parliamentary audit repeatedly called for a shift in tourism policy—from prioritizing visitor numbers to focusing on length of stay, spending and repeat visits.

Foreign tourists walk along Myeongdong Street in Jung-gu, Seoul. Yonhap News.

According to data released by Rep. Jeong Yeonuk of the People Power Party at the National Assembly’s parliamentary audit of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) by the Committee on Culture, Sports and Tourism on October 14, the number of foreign visitors to Korea rose 71.7%, from 11.03 million in 2023 to 18.94 million last year. Compared with 16.37 million in 2024, last year’s figure represented a 15.7% increase. The number of visitors to Korea last year surpassed the pre-pandemic figure of 17.5 million in 2019, setting a new record.

However, over the same period, the average length of stay fell by 1.3 days, from 7.8 to 6.5 days. Average per-person spending on accommodation dropped 17.8%, while spending at restaurants fell 16.9%. The repeat-visit rate has also remained in the 54% to 56% range over the past four years. The number of tourists has recovered rapidly, but the amount each visitor spends in Korea and the length of their stay have not increased at the same pace.

While the government touts a record number of visitors to Korea, lawmakers say that indicators of tourism’s qualitative performance still need improvement. In particular, the decline in spending on accommodation and at restaurants raises questions about how much the increase in tourist numbers is translating into higher revenue for local lodging and food-service businesses. These figures reflect changes in per-person spending and do not indicate an increase or decrease in total spending by foreign tourists.

Cruise tourism faces a similar problem. According to data obtained by Rep. Jeong, the number of cruise tourists increased 4.5-fold in three years, but per-person spending fell 81% compared with 10 years ago. Cruise tourists calling at Busan stayed for an average of just 6.7 hours. Even as the number of ship arrivals and passengers grows, the time available for actual sightseeing and spending in the local community remains limited.

Lawmakers also pointed out that the authorities do not systematically track the proportion of tourists who disembark and visit local areas. Rep. Jeong criticized the KTO for not directly surveying the disembarkation rate, despite recognizing that a lack of guides and on-site information can leave passengers around the port or lead them to reboard without going sightseeing.

The government also recognizes the need to increase local spending from cruise tourism and is pursuing related initiatives. This year, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism allocated KRW 3.4 billion in a supplementary budget to support sightseeing shuttle buses, sales of local specialties and welcome events at major ports of call. The KTO has said that after it operated a K-beauty shuttle bus for cruise crew members in Busan, the disembarkation rate among crew members using the program rose from 29% to 49%. Lawmakers say that, beyond the results of specific programs, the authorities need to track disembarkation, length of stay and spending among all cruise passengers calling at ports.

Medical tourism, which generates relatively high spending, was notably concentrated in a few regions. Last year, 87.2% of foreign patients received treatment in Seoul, while the share for the wider Seoul metropolitan area, including Gyeonggi and Incheon, reached 91.2%. Rep. Jeong’s data showed that the 12 cities and provinces outside Seoul, Busan, Gyeonggi, Jeju and Incheon accounted for just 2.7%. Lawmakers say this reflects a structure in which the economic benefits of a growing medical tourism market are not sufficiently reaching regional areas.

On-site inconveniences for tourists are also on the rise. According to data from the Tourism Complaint Center released by Rep. Im Ohkyung of the Democratic Party of Korea, the center received 1,753 complaints about tourism-related inconveniences from January through July this year, already exceeding the 1,744 complaints received over the whole of last year. Foreigners accounted for 84.3% of complainants.

Rep. Im highlighted problems tourists face on the ground, including unilateral cancellations of accommodation bookings, price gouging and improper taxi fares, and called for improvements to tourism services to encourage repeat visits. Her point was that reducing inconveniences tourists encounter after entering the country—in booking accommodation, using transportation and accessing tourism information—is as important as attracting large numbers of visitors.

The KTO’s on-site inspections and follow-up measures also came under scrutiny. According to data submitted to Rep. Jeong, 84 issues for improvement identified by the KTO’s Nurisalimdan at 24 locations nationwide in June and July were not reported to local governments until September. A lack of foreign-language information was identified at 18 locations. The number of inspectors had been cut from 100 to 50, and there were no foreign inspectors.

Rep. Jeong also identified the division of tourism-related administrative responsibilities among multiple ministries as a problem. Visa and immigration screening for cruise tourists are handled by the Ministry of Justice, ports and terminals by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and efforts to attract foreign patients by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, leaving policy coordination and on-site responses fragmented.

“Thirty million is not the goal, but a means,” Rep. Jeong said, calling for the KTO to include length of stay and repeat-visit rates, in addition to tourist numbers, in its key performance indicators (KPIs), and for discussions on establishing a tourism agency to coordinate tourism policy comprehensively.

Park Seonghyeok, president of the Korea Tourism Organization, identified improving the country’s capacity to accommodate tourists and dispersing tourism across regions as key priorities. “Along with improving services such as transportation and accommodation, we are focusing on two things: diversifying entry points to distribute visitor demand to regional areas, and improving our capacity to accommodate tourists,” Park said.

Lawmakers say that for Korea’s inbound tourism market to move beyond a quantitative recovery and achieve sustained growth, a system is needed to assess how long tourists actually stay, where they spend their money and whether they return. Key challenges for future tourism policy include spreading the benefits of high-value tourism, such as cruise and medical tourism, to regional areas; addressing problems with accommodation and transportation; and ensuring that on-site inspections are effective.

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