KB News Desk
Four major royal palaces and Jongmyo Shrine in Seoul received an increasing number of foreign visitors in the first half of 2024, government data showed, Monday.
According to the National Heritage Administration’s Palace Relics Headquarters, four of central Seoul’s five historic royal palaces — Gyeongbok, Changdeok, Changgyeong and Deoksu — and Jongmyo Shrine have surpassed 6.5 million visitors between January and June this year. The figure is a 22.7 percent jump from last year’s 5.3 million.
Notably, the number of foreign visitors among the sites, which date back to the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty, stood at around 1.5 million, which is a 2.2 times increase from last year’s 703,318.
The number of foreign visitors more than doubled from 121,078 in January to 265,549 in February during the Lunar New Year holiday, and reached 313,920 and 351,255 in April and May, respectively, exceeding 300,000 for two consecutive months.
Gyeongbok Palace received the most foreign visitors, with 1,044,708 people from January to June. The figure is 3.1 times the number for the first half of last year, which stood at 338,455.
The headquarters believes that such an increase is due to an overall surge in foreign tourists visiting Korea.
According to the Korea Tourism Organization’s statistics, Korea received some 6.28 million inbound visitors between January and May this year, which is a significant 81.1 percent jump from the same period last year.
The National Museum of Korea in Seoul’s Yongsan District also reported a record number of foreign visitors at 94,951 during the first half of this year.
