As A Result Of COVID-19, Foreign Tourists Visiting South Korea Dropped 99.5 Percent

JAKARTA - The number of tourists visiting South Korea fell 99.5 percent in May 2020. This is due to global travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Quoted from Yonhap, Monday, July 6, data from the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) showed that only 6,111 foreign tourists visited South Korea in May. This number is down 99.5 percent compared to May 2019 which reached 1.23 million tourists.

However, the number of arrivals in May was still better than in April, which was only 5,135 tourists. This figure is also the lowest this year.

In March 2020, there were still 31,500 tourists coming. Meanwhile, in February it reached 504,000 visitors, down from January's position of 1.03 million tourists.

The KTO said the number of foreign arrivals to South Korea in the last month reached 30,861, down about 98 percent from the previous year. Apart from tourists, the arrival of foreigners is more dominated by ship and flight crews.

Of the number of tourists who came to the State of Ginseng in May, the number of tourists from the United States (US) was dominated by 2,996 people. Followed by the Philippines with 725 and Indonesia with 581 visitors.

Meanwhile, there were only 178 foreign tourists from China, down far from the previous year's 410,000. Meanwhile, tourists from Japan fell from 280,000 to 45 in the fifth month.

The tourism promotion carried out by South Korea now seems futile amid the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the US and other countries. Yet at the same time, a number of countries have reopened their economies and relaxed travel restrictions.

South Korea itself requires all arrivals to self-quarantine for two weeks. This is of course in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.