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Visitors from China overtake Japanese

Seo Jee-yeon

The Korea Herald

Publication Date : 06-02-2013

 

Visitors from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong topped tourist numbers to Korea last year, surpassing Japanese tourists for the first time, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports officials said Tuesday.

The number of Chinese visitors rose 27.8 per cent to 3.75 million in 2012 from the previous year, while the number of Japanese visitors grew just 7 per cent to 2.84 million in the same period due to the weak yen.

Chinese visitors took 33.6 per cent of the nation’s inbound tourism market, followed by Japanese visitors with a 31.6 per cent market share.

Despite the protracted global economic downturn, the share of Chinese visitors in local inbound tourism has continued to rise since 2009, surpassing 30 percent for the first time last year.

 

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