Popular Spots for Foreigners Staying in Korea... Consistently Visiting Food Alleys and Deoksugung Palace

LG Uplus Publishes 'Foreigners' Cultural Leisure Destination Analysis Report'

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, foreigners residing in Korea have consistently visited places such as Namdaemun Galchijorim Alley and Deoksugung Palace. In particular, the Itaewon area saw a high frequency of visits from foreign males in their 20s.

LG Uplus announced on the 4th that it has published the ‘Foreigners' Cultural Leisure Visit Analysis Report’ in collaboration with the Korea Culture Information Service Agency, which covers tourism information of foreigners residing in Korea.

As of the end of last year, there were approximately 1.6 million foreigners residing in Korea, with about half using LG Uplus’s mobile services. LG Uplus analyzed floating population data identified through location information from mobile communication services such as 5G and LTE to track trends in the number of foreign visitors and to distinguish areas where foreign visitor numbers increased before and after COVID-19 vaccination periods.

Data analysis showed that 13 locations, including Namdaemun Galchijorim Alley and Deoksugung Palace, consistently ranked high in the number of foreign visitors. Especially, the Itaewon area was predominantly visited by people in their 20s (55%) and males (60%).

Last year, areas with high visitor numbers included Milal Museum, C156 Underground, Baekbin Crosswalk, and Seokchon Lake, totaling 16 locations. Among these, some places such as Dasandong Fortress Wall Trail, Haebangchon, and Gyeongui Line Train Track Meat Alley were popular among long-term foreign residents, while places like Yeomni-dong Salt Road, Korea Advertising Museum, and Yeonpink Workshop attracted short-term foreign visitors.

Additionally, this report includes ▲foreigners’ card spending data by Seoul city regions and major visit spots (provided by Hana Card) ▲foreigners’ living population data (provided by Seoul Open Data Plaza) ▲foreigners’ website usage data (provided by Korail), among others. The report is available on the Korea Culture Information Service Agency’s website.

Since last year, LG Uplus has been providing data such as tourist population, floating population, inflow/outflow population, and living population through the Culture Information Service Agency portal, Korea Data Industry Agency (K-DATA), and KDX Data Exchange. In April this year, they are also planning to launch ‘Data Plus,’ a consumer analysis platform.

Jeon Kyung-hye, LG Uplus Data Business Promotion Manager (Executive Director), said, “We hope that LG Uplus’s data, including this foreign tourism analysis, will help revive the tourism, exhibition, and performance industries, as well as surrounding commercial districts, which have been struggling due to COVID-19.”

Meanwhile, this report was prepared to understand the domestic cultural and leisure visit status and consumption patterns of foreigners. It also analyzed whether the places visited by foreigners residing in Korea long-term or short-term have changed since the outbreak of COVID-19. The report will be posted on the Culture Big Data Platform website.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.