South Korea's tourism account posted a surplus for the third consecutive month in November, largely thanks to a rise in the number of Chinese arrivals in the country, data showed on Thursday.
According to the data compiled by the Bank of Korea (BOK) and the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, the nation posted a US$206.8 million surplus in tourism in November, the largest level since March 2009 when the country logged a surplus of $266.4 million. Tourism revenue reached $1,684 million in November.
The number of Chinese tourist arrivals totaled 460,671 in November, up 66.7 percent from the same month of last year, the data said. They accounted for 41.2 percent of the total arrivals.
In the first 11 months of this year, Chinese visitors totaled 5.7 million in number, or 43.5 percent of the total, compared with 2.1 million Japanese arrivals.
In 2013, Chinese arrivals constituted 35.5 percent of the total, up 10 percentage points from 25.5 percent in the previous year.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
