The Korea Tourism Organization is delighted to announce, that as of December 1st, 2011, the annual number of foreign tourists visiting Korea surpassed 9 million for the first time ever.

Korea attracted over 1 million visitors in 1978, and attracted 2 million visitors in 1988, 5 million in 2000, 7 million in 2009, and 8 million in 2010! Over the last 3 years, there has been a growth of over one million visitors per year.

Despite the challenges that Korean tourism faced this year, such as the ongoing global economic crisis, as well as internal and external difficulties, since June, as compared to the previous year, the Korean tourism industry has maintained a double-digit growth rate.

There has been a 7% increase of Japanese tourists to Korea compared to last year, reaching 3 million visitors, as well as a tremendous 17% increase of Chinese tourists, the cumulative annual number of Chinese tourist exceeding 2 million for the first time in history. Even with the economic slow-down there was an increase of 1.7% in the U.S market, reaching 600,000 visitors.

The continued growth of the Japanese and Chinese markets, due to the influence of the uniquely Korean ‘Hallyu’ (or Korean Wave) tourism brand image, has been heightened awareness of the destination and contributed greatly to the improvement in attracting visitors. The Korean Government has been very proactive in implementing varied Hallyu events, Korean currency shopping campaigns, regional tourism campaigns utilizing chartered flights, ski tourism and winter tourism campaigns as well as 8 special projects to promote winter tourism.

If in the remaining month Korea is able to attract 1 million more visitors, then the goal of 10 million foreign visitors by the end of 2011 will open a new era in the tourism industry of the nation.

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For further information please contact:  
Mr. Ramy Salameh

Tel: 020 7321 2535

Email: london@gokorea.co.uk