SOUTH KOREA. Chinese visitor arrivals to South Korea continued to decline sharply in June – plummeting by -66.4% year-on-year, according to Korea Tourism Organization statistics.
The decline is being driven by the THAAD dispute between South Korea and China. As reported, South Korea’s decision to deploy the US defence system infuriated the Chinese government and led to a backlash against Korean companies.
The tourism and travel retail sectors, heavily dependent on Chinese visitors, have been among the worst-affected. On 15 March China imposed a ban on group tours to South Korea, leading to a -40% year-on-year fall in Chinese arrivals in March, a calamitous -66.6% decline in April, a -64.1% slump in May and now the most recently reported June figures.
Chinese arrivals numbered 254,930 in June, or 25.7% of all visitor arrivals. This compares to 758,534 in June 2016, a 48.8% share.
For the first six months of 2017, Chinese arrivals were down by -41% year-on-year at 2.25 million. This compares to 3.8 million in the first half of 2016.
More positively, Korean departures climbed by +18% in June to 2,098,126, and +18.7% in the first half to 12,620,762.
