"What Did You Come to See in Seoul?"... Asked Chinese and Japanese Tourists

More Than Half Prefer 'Nighttime Scenery'

What do Chinese and Japanese tourists visiting Seoul most want to see? Survey results revealed that Seoul's 'nightscape' is the main attraction that draws tourists' attention.

Seoul Night View [Image Source=Yonhap News]

The Seoul Tourism Foundation (CEO Gil Gi-yeon) recently announced that it conducted a satisfaction survey on Seoul tourism content targeting major visitors, Japanese and Chinese tourists who visited Seoul.

The survey was conducted online over about a week, targeting 1,000 Chinese and Japanese tourists aged 20 to 50 who have traveled to Seoul. The foundation explained that the significance of this survey is "to understand the actual conditions of Chinese and Japanese tourists, who are the most important key customers in the inbound tourism market focused on night tourism and winter."

Seoul Night Tourism Survey
[Image source=Seoul Tourism Foundation]

According to the survey, 84.8% of Japanese and 92.2% of Chinese respondents answered that they have 'experience' with Seoul night tourism. This means that most tourists who visited Seoul have experienced night tourism.

What attracts tourists to experience Seoul's night tourism? Respondents answered in order of 'scenery only visible at night (50.7%)' and 'activities and experiences only possible at night (48.9%).'

[Image source=Seoul Tourism Organization]

In particular, tourists regarded dazzling attractions as the most important tourism point. 53.2% said they valued "things to see and enjoy," followed by 'security/safety' (45.6%) and 'restaurants/cafes around night tourism spots' (40.3%).

Also, Japanese tourists were most satisfied with gourmet tourism (44.9%), night shopping (41.1%), and night markets/traditional markets (31.7%) in that order. Chinese tourists responded with nightscape viewing (35.8%), night markets/traditional markets (34.3%), and gourmet tourism (30.2%), showing some differences in preferences by country.

Meanwhile, among tourists from these countries, those in their 20s (83.2%) and 30s (86.4%) were found to participate more actively in festival events, and men (83.4%) participated slightly more than women (77.7%).