International visitor spending in South Korea 2024, by category

According to a survey conducted among international visitors to South Korea throughout 2024, visitors spent an average of

U.S. dollars during their trip per person. The highest average amount was spent on shopping trips, at dollars per person. Other high costs included accommodation, flights to South Korea, and eating out.

Travel expenses

In 2019, the total tourism receipts were estimated to have reached a record amount of around billion dollars. This plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has since recovered to an estimated billion dollars in 2023. Due to costs associated with quarantine measures and the general increase in living costs, per capita expenditure skyrocketed during the pandemic. While it has since returned to levels closer to pre-pandemic figures. 

Tourism industry

South Korea reached an all time high of

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million visitors in 2019. As the tourism industry being one of the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, numbers shrank drastically. With about million international visitors in 2024, the industry is well on its way to recovery. 2020 had seen a roughly percent decrease in overseas arrivals compared to the previous year, while 2023 recorded a percent increase on the heels of a percent increase in 2022.