Foreign visitors increase 14 pct in August: data

SEOUL, Sept. 23 (Yonhap) -- The number of foreign tourists visiting South Korea in August rose 14 percent from a year ago to reach nearly 1.6 million, official data showed Monday.

According to the data released by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), 1,586,299 foreigners visited South Korea in August, marking growth of 14 percent from the same month last year.

By country, 578,112 Chinese arrived here last month, followed by 329,652 from Japan, 109,273 from Taiwan, 86,586 from the United States and 65,958 from Hong Kong, the data showed.

Arrivals from China rose 20.9 percent on-year, due to an increase in family and group summer vacation travel, KTO officials said.

Visitors from Japan increased 4.6 percent on-year in August but the growth rate noticeably slowed from the corresponding figure of 19.2 percent in July, reflecting the aftereffects of strained diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo over historical issues and bilateral trade conflict.

Visitors from other Asian countries and the Middle East went up 12.9 percent last month.

Meanwhile, the number of South Korean overseas travelers declined 3.7 percent on-year to 2.43 million in August, the KTO data found.

ycm@yna.co.kr
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