Foreign visitation to South Korea is almost back to pre-COVID levels, new data from the Korea Tourism Organization shows, in what shapes as a positive sign for the nation’s foreigner-only casino industry.
According to the data, Korea welcomed around 1.42 million international tourists in June, representing a 47.5% increase over the same month in 2023 and back to almost 96% of pre-COVID levels. There had been 1.48 million international arrivals in June 2019.
China remains Korea’s number one source visitor market with 397,000 arrivals in June, followed by Japan with 258,000, the US with 152,000 and Taiwan with 144,000. The number of arrivals from the US was 44% higher than 2019 levels and Taiwan 21.8% higher, while Japan and China reached 91% and 84% of June 2019 levels respectively.
For the first six months of 2024, Korea welcomed 7.7 international arrivals, up 73.8% year-on-year and back to 91% of pre-COVID levels. China was again the top source market with 2.2 million arrivals, followed by Japan with 1.43 million, Taiwan with 680,000 and the US with 640,000.
South Korea is home to 17 foreigner-only casinos, including the recently opened Mohegan INSPIRE in Incheon.
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