KUALA LUMPUR - The number of foreign visitors to South Korea increased by 17.3% in November compared with the same month last year, showing continued recovery in the tourism sector, official data showed.

Data from the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) showed about 1.6 million foreign tourists visited the country in November, up from 1.36 million a year earlier and 9.6% higher than November 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic.

China remained the top source of visitors with 378,000 arrivals, followed by Japan with 363,000, Taiwan with 158,000, the United States with 133,000 and the Philippines with 60,000 visitors.

Chinese tourist numbers recovered to about 75% of 2019 levels, while arrivals from Japan jumped by 40.4% compared with the same period that year.

From January to November, South Korea received 17.42 million foreign tourists, marking a 15.4 per cent rise from last year and exceeding 2019 levels by 8.6%, according to the KTO.

Visitors from China made up 29.2% of the total arrivals, or about 5.09 million people, during the first 11 months of the year.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism expects total foreign arrivals this year to exceed 18.7 million, which would be a new record and close to the 20 million mark.

The previous highest number of foreign visitors was 17.5 million, recorded in 2019 before the pandemic.