Foreign visitors to S. Korea jump 15 pct in June

SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- The number of foreign visitors to South Korea rose sharply last month, helped by a large increase in visitors from China, Japan and Taiwan, data showed Tuesday.

In June, the number of foreign visitors to the country came to more than 1.47 million, up 15.1 percent from around 1.28 million the same month last year, according to the data from the state-run Korea Tourism Organization.

By country, the number of visitors from China spiked 25 percent on-year to a little over 475,000 last month, with visitors from Japan soaring 20.1 percent to some 282,000.

The number of visitors from Taiwan reached a record high of around 118,000 last month, surging 15.1 percent on-year, with the number of visitors from the United States also reaching a new high of some 105,000 last month, climbing 11.2 percent over the cited period.

But the number of visitors from Thailand dropped 8.1 percent to about 37,000, with the number from Hong Kong sliding 6.7 percent to some 61,000.

For the first six months of the year, the number of foreign visitors to the country was tallied at nearly 8.44 million, up 16.9 percent from the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the number of South Koreans going abroad gained 7.4 percent on-year to some 2.5 million in June.

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