SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA / RankWire.AI / – p style=”text-align: justify;”The influx of international travelers to South Korea remains robust, with foreign visitor numbers in July 2026 topping 2 million, continuing a trend of outbound travel surpassing pre-pandemic figures. During this month, the country welcomed 2,093,223 international arrivals, as reported by the Korea Tourism Organization. This represents a 20.8% increase compared to the 1,733,199 visitors recorded in July 2025 and amounts to 144.6% of the number registered in July 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global mobility.
Japan contributed roughly 330,000 visitors in July, while Taiwan brought in about 261,000. The United States accounted for around 150,000, and approximately 76,000 visitors arrived from Hong Kong. All five markets also exceeded their respective July 2019 figures. Chinese arrivals saw a 49.6% increase compared to July 2019, with Japanese visitors rising by 20.2%. Notably, Taiwan experienced the largest percentage jump among these markets, increasing 129.4% from its 2019 level.
Leading Asian economies contribute significantly to visitor growth
Increases from the United States reached 54.4% relative to July 2019, while arrivals from Hong Kong grew by 29.1%. These figures demonstrate that South Korea’s most prominent inbound tourism sources have now surpassed their pre-pandemic levels. China continued to lead by a large margin in July. Japan and Taiwan ranked second and third, respectively, with the United States remaining the primary outside-East Asia market.
From January to July 2026, South Korea hosted a total of 12,803,142 foreign visitors. This seven-month total reflects a 21.3% increase compared to the same period in 2025 and reached 129.5% of the January-July figure from 2019. China contributed approximately 3.99 million travelers, followed by Japan with 2.28 million, Taiwan with 1.41 million, and the United States with about 960,000 arrivals.
Seven-month visitor count hits 12.8 million
Over the first half of 2026, Hong Kong contributed approximately 420,000 visitors. The Korea Tourism Organization announced July’s tourism figures on August 25, which include both inbound tourists and outbound Korean travelers. In July, outbound trips by South Koreans numbered 2,419,457, marking a slight 0.7% decrease from the same month in 2025, when outbound travel was 2,435,291.
Between January and July, roughly 17.38 million South Koreans traveled abroad. This cumulative outbound figure is 98.5% of the corresponding period in 2019. The data indicates differing trends for inbound and outbound travel—foreign arrivals are significantly above pre-pandemic levels, whereas outbound travel remains marginally below the 2019 benchmark. South Korea’s inbound arrivals for July also exceeded both 2024 and 2025 figures by double-digit percentages.