Fueled by BTS, foreign visitors spend $856.5M on tourism, culture sectors in April

Foreign visitors spent a record 1.33 trillion won ($856.5 million) on Korea's tourism and culture sectors in April, driven by BTS's "Arirang" world tour concerts.

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Foreign tourists wearing traditional Korean attire take photo at Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul on April 16.
Tourists wearing traditional Korean attire take a photo at Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul on April 16.

Foreign visitors traveling in Korea spent a record high of 1.3 trillion won ($856.5 million) on tourism and culture-related activities in April, a month that saw BTS concerts draw a wave of overseas fans to the country, the Korea Tourism Organization said on Tuesday.

The April figure eclipsed the record set in March, when spending topped 1 trillion won for the first time.

The so-called Korean Wave-related spending totaled 1.33 trillion won in April, a 21.7 percent increase from the previous month, when foreigners' spending was tallied at 1.09 trillion won, according to statistics from the state tourism agency.

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Visitors shop inside a K-pop related merch store in central Seoul on March 30.
Visitors shop inside a K-pop-related merch store in central Seoul on March 30. Images of BTS members are seen on the wall.

This year's April figure jumped 54.6 percent compared to the same month last year.

Korean Wave spending is based on foreign visitors' credit card expenses, including for concerts, shopping, cultural experiences, fashion and sports-related activities, and excludes sectors with little connection to tourism and industries outside the influence of Korean popular culture, such as accommodation and transportation.

By specific sectors, shopping accounted for the largest share in April at 38.4 percent, followed by beauty and wellness at 22 percent, fashion at 14 percent, lifestyle food at 12.2 percent, Korean cuisine at 10.2 percent and night culture at 1.6 percent.

The lifestyle food category covers spending at convenience stores, fried chicken outlets and non-Korean restaurants and cafes, and the night culture category encompasses nightlife-related purchases at pubs and bars.

The total had risen steadily each month since reaching 750.4 billion won in August last year and later climbed to a then-record 962 billion won that November. The figure subsequently declined to 645 billion won in February.

The figure exceeded 1 trillion won for the first time in March, when BTS held its comeback performance at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul. It climbed to a new record again in April, when the group's "Arirang" world tour kicked off in Goyang, Gyeonggi.


BY JEONG HYE-JEONG [[email protected]]

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

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