National Museum of Korea visitor count swells 40% on year, sets record

The National Museum of Korea drew a record number of visitors in the first half of this year, boosted by the global surge in interest in Korean culture, data showed Wednesday.

A total of 3,795,400 people visited the museum in Seoul between January and June, up 39.7 percent from 2,716,323 during the same period last year, according to figures cited by cultural industry sources.

The figure marks the highest first-half attendance since the museum opened in 1945 and already surpasses its total visitor count for all of 2024, which stood at 3,788,785.

Visitor numbers rose steadily throughout the period, with monthly attendance exceeding 700,000 in January and February, when winter vacations and the Lunar New Year overlapped, as well as in May, which included several holidays. About 536,000 people visited in June alone.

The number of foreign visitors also jumped 68.8 percent on year from 97,985 to 165,404.

The museum's strong performance follows a record year in 2025. According to data from British art magazine The Art Newspaper, it ranked as the world's third most-visited museum with 6,507,483 visitors, behind only the Louvre in Paris and the Vatican Museums.

With visitor numbers continuing to climb, the museum is widely expected to surpass 6 million annual visitors for the second consecutive year, with some projections cautiously suggesting it could reach 7 million.

The museum said it will extend opening hours during the peak summer season. It will operate from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from July 27 to Aug. 17, compared with its usual hours of 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Late-night openings on Wednesdays and Saturdays will remain in place until 9 p.m.

Yonhap