Foreign visitors to Korea set to hit record 23.57 million this year despite weak yen headwinds

Yanolja Research forecasts 23.57 million arrivals

Visitors up in 53 of 59 tracked countries

Japanese tourists choose Korea over yen disadvantage

Chinese travelers shift from Japan to Korea

1 in 10 Taiwanese overseas trips now headed to Korea

Foreign visitors and other tourists at Gyeongbokgung Palace in Jongno-gu, Seoul [Yonhap]

Foreign tourist arrivals in Korea are on track to reach a record 23.57 million this year, according to a new forecast, marking what analysts describe as a turning point in the quantitative growth of inbound tourism driven by the global popularity of Korean culture.

Yanolja Research, a travel and tourism industry research firm, projected in a brief published Thursday that 23.567 million foreign tourists would visit Korea in 2026 — up 24.5 percent from last year's 18.937 million. The firm said the forecast reflects a rapid surge in Korea-bound travel from Japan and Taiwan since the start of the year, a trend that has since spread to long-haul markets including the United States.

Monthly foreign arrivals to Korea and growth rates, January–July 2025 and 2026 [Yanolja Research]

Foreign arrivals from January through July totaled 12.803 million, up 2.244 million, or 21.3 percent, from the same period last year. July alone drew 2.093 million visitors, the highest monthly figure this year. Even if arrivals for the remaining August-to-December period grow just 10 percent year-on-year, the annual total would reach roughly 22 million — already above the upper end of earlier forecasts. About 70 percent of the increase came from China (859,000 additional visitors), Japan (361,000) and Taiwan (349,000). Arrivals rose in 53 of the 59 countries tracked, including major markets such as Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, signaling that growth is not dependent on any single market.

The sharpest shifts came from Japan and Taiwan. While overall Japanese overseas departures rose just 4.1 percent in the January-to-July period, Korea-bound Japanese travelers increased 18.8 percent — more than four times as fast. Taiwan showed a similar pattern: overall outbound travel grew 16.3 percent, but trips to Korea surged 34.3 percent, more than twice the pace, pushing Korea's share of Taiwanese overseas travel from 9.4 percent to 10.9 percent.

Growth rates of Korea-bound visitors from Japan and Taiwan compared with their overall outbound departures [Yanolja Research]

The driving force behind the trend is Korean culture. Google Trends data show that searches related to Korean arts and entertainment in Japan jumped 116 percent year-on-year, while food and beverage searches rose 198.3 percent; in Taiwan, the figures climbed 38.7 percent and 69.8 percent, respectively. Japan-to-Korea arrivals rose nearly 20 percent even as the weak yen made Korea a more expensive destination, suggesting that content and cultural appeal — not price — is drawing Japanese travelers to Korea.

"Japan and Taiwan are not markets where overseas travel overall has increased — they are markets where Korea's share among multiple destinations has grown," said Hong Seok-won, a senior researcher at Yanolja Research. "Both markets show the same pattern: a spike in search interest followed, a few months later, by a rise in actual arrivals."

Travelers crowd Terminal 1 of Incheon International Airport [Yonhap]

Chinese arrivals reached 3.988 million, up 27.5 percent. After the Chinese government advised its citizens in November 2025 to avoid travel to Japan, Chinese visitors to Japan fell 56.3 percent while Korea-bound Chinese travelers posted double-digit monthly gains throughout the period. Korea's share among 22 major destinations rose from 5.4 percent to 6.5 percent. American arrivals also grew 11.6 percent to 962,000, and Google Trends searches related to Korean culture rose 32 to 55 percent across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Yanolja Research said growing interest in Korean culture has created a common foundation that makes Korea a desirable destination, while factors such as airfare, exchange rates and market-specific events determine how quickly that interest converts into actual visits — at a pace that varies by market. The full report is available on the Yanolja Research website.

Jang Su-cheong, director of Yanolja Research, said the fact that Korea-bound travel from Japan and Taiwan is growing far faster than overall outbound travel from those countries — and that Korea's share of their overseas trips is rising — is "the clearest signal that interest in Korean culture and Korea itself is translating into actual travel choices." He added that the question for policymakers and the industry should now shift "from 'will foreign visitors come back?' to 'how do we stably absorb expanding demand and channel it into greater tourism spending, regional dispersal and repeat visits?'"

terry@heraldcorp.com