810,000 Cruise Tourists Visiting Korea Last Year: "Sails in Favorable Winds"

Threefold Increase Compared to Last Year's 273,000 Visitors
Number of Docked Cruise Ships Also Doubled

The number of cruise tourists visiting South Korea last year reached 810,000, approximately three times higher than in 2023 (273,000). The number of cruise ships that docked also doubled to 414 vessels, compared to 203 in 2023.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced on the 23rd that inter-ministerial cooperation to increase cruise tourists visiting Korea has been successful, with last year's growth rate in cruise tourism revenue significantly exceeding the global average by about 1.13 times.

The two ministries emphasized that they achieved these results by collaborating with local governments, the Korea Tourism Organization, port authorities, and others to attract cruise ships.

In particular, cruise tourists visiting Jeju totaled 640,000 last year, with 274 cruise ships recorded. This marks a substantial increase compared to 101,000 tourists and 71 ships in 2023. Busan also saw growth, recording 152,000 cruise tourists and 118 cruise ships, up from 150,000 tourists and 105 ships in 2023. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries have strengthened cooperation to foster an industry combining shipping and tourism. They established a cooperative system through personnel exchanges at the director level (Director of Domestic Tourism Promotion at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Director of Marine Leisure Tourism at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries), and jointly formulated the ‘Cruise Tourism Revitalization Plan’ in June 2023. This plan includes four major strategic tasks: infrastructure improvement, advancement of tourism products, strengthening attraction and promotion, institutional reforms, and provision of incentives.

This year, the two ministries will continue their collaboration aiming for growth in the cruise industry and an increase in inbound tourists. Plans include activating national cruise tourism through a coastal cruise pilot project, developing themed tourism products for each port of call, joint attraction activities between ports of call and cruise ships, and expanding reductions in port facility usage fees. The ministries stated that approximately 560 cruise ships are expected to dock this year based on berth usage applications, with about 1.09 million cruise tourists anticipated to visit South Korea through these efforts.

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