Gyeonggi-do Sees 83% Sharp Decline in Foreign Tourists Over 4 Years... Due to COVID-19

Gyeonggi Provincial Government

Last year, the number of foreign tourists visiting Gyeonggi-do was only 17% of the pre-COVID-19 level.

According to data from Gyeonggi-do and the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute's foreign tourist survey on the 19th, the number of foreign tourists visiting Korea last year was 3,198,017, of which 14.1%, or 459,20, visited Gyeonggi-do.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Gyeonggi-do more than doubled (111%) compared to 213,708 in 2021. However, compared to 2,607,911 in 2019 before the COVID-19 outbreak, it remained at 17.3%.

Looking at the average length of stay by province, Gyeonggi-do was second longest with 8.3 nights, following Chungbuk (10.3 nights). Monthly, January and February saw the highest number of visitors to Gyeonggi-do.

A Gyeonggi-do official stated, "Gyeonggi-do has excellent accessibility and abundant tourist resources enjoyed by both domestic and foreign visitors," adding, "Recently, it has been attracting attention as an industrial tourism hub in Northeast Asia."

Meanwhile, according to the 'National Travel Survey' data, in 2022, Gyeonggi-do accounted for the highest proportion of domestic travel destinations among Koreans at 20.7%, surpassing Gangwon (12.8%). In 2019, Gyeonggi-do also had the highest share (17.4%), but its proportion has increased.

The reasons for visiting Gyeonggi-do were sightseeing opportunities (21.8%), destination recognition (17.4%), available travel time (12.3%), and travel distance (11.4%), in that order.

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