Foreign tourist arrivals in Korea recover to nearly 96 per cent of pre-pandemic levels: What you need to know?

The number of foreigners visiting Korea recovered to nearly 96 per cent of pre-pandemic levels last month, the state-run tourism promotion agency said Monday.

Korea welcomed about 1.42 million international tourists in June, marking a 47.5 percent increase from a year ago, according to the Korea Tourism Organization.

The figure is 96 percent of the 1.48 million foreigners who visited Korea in June 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Notably, tourist numbers from the United States and Taiwan exceeded their pre-pandemic levels by 44 percent and 21.8 percent, respectively.

Arrivals from Japan and China reached 91 percent and 84 percent of their pre-pandemic figures.

China remained the top source of visitors to Korea with 397,000 arrivals in June.

Japan follows with 258,000, the U.S. with 152,000, Taiwan with 144,000, and Hong Kong with 54,000.

In the first half of the year, Korea saw 7.7 million foreign visitors, a 73.8 percent increase from a year ago.

The total represents 91 percent of the visitor count during the first six months in 2019.

China led the numbers with 2.22 million visitors, followed by Japan with 1.43 million, Taiwan with 680,000, and the United States with 640,000.

A total of 134 countries saw an increase in the number of visitors to Korea in the first half, compared to the same period in 2019.