South Korea's tourism balance swings to deficit after 4 months of surplus
South Korea's tourism balance swung back to a deficit in July after posting surpluses for four consecutive months, industry data showed on Sunday.
The balance posted a deficit of US$50.3 million in July, reversing a surplus of $596.6 million in June, according to the data from the Korea Tourism Organization, reports Yonhap news agency.
Total tourism spending by South Koreans overseas reached $2.67 billion in July, exceeding the $2.62 billion spent by foreign visitors in the country, the data showed.
South Korea's tourism balance had remained in the red for 72 consecutive months, since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began to disrupt international travel. It returned to a surplus in March this year and stayed in the black through June before slipping back into a deficit in July.
Market watchers attributed the improvement in the tourism balance earlier this year in part to a series of major K-pop events by supergroup BTS that drew foreign visitors to South Korea while calling for concerted efforts to develop attractive cultural content to draw more foreign travellers.
Meanwhile, foreign tourists' spending in South Korea accounted for 1.17 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2025 amid a rise in inbound travellers.
A total of 18.94 million foreigners visited South Korea in 2025, staying an average of 6.5 days and spending an average of US$177.8 per day per person, according to the report published by the Bank of Korea (BOK).
Their spending on goods and services, classified as tourism exports under the travel account in the balance of payments, accounted for 2.5 percent of the country's total private consumption of around 1,200 trillion won (US$843.1 billion) last year.
Foreign tourists' spending contributed an average of 0.04 percentage point to annual GDP growth over the 2000-2025 period. The contribution rose to 0.15 percentage point in 2024 and 2025, when South Korea reported a sharp increase in foreign arrivals.
