International visitor spending in South Korea 2023, by category
Travel expenses
In 2019, the total tourism receipts were estimated to have reached a record amount of around 20.7 billion dollars. This plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has since recovered to an estimated 11.8 billion dollars in 2022. 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 fallen to roughly 3.7 thousand dollars, this is still above the 2019 figure of 1.2 thousand dollars.
Tourism industry
South Korea reached an all time high of 17.5 million visitors in 2019. As the tourism industry being one of the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, numbers shrank drastically. With over 11 million international visitors in 2023, the industry is well on its way to recovery. 2020 had seen a roughly 86 percent decrease in overseas arrivals compared to the previous year, while 2023 recorded a 245 percent increase on the heels of a 231 percent increase in 2022.