[K-Tourism's New Landscape] ① "Immersed in Everyday Korean Life"... Myeong-dong No Longer a Must-Visit for Foreigners

Era of 20 Million Inbound Tourists
Rising Share of Free Independent Travelers over Group Tours
K-Content and SNS Fuel Korea Travel Hotspots

Editor's NoteThe travel routes of foreign visitors to Korea have changed. Until before the COVID-19 pandemic, package tours that took visitors around major tourist attractions, duty-free shops, and large-scale shopping facilities were the mainstream. After the transition to the endemic phase (periodic spread of infectious diseases), however, there has been an overwhelming increase in small-scale, family-unit free independent travel (FIT) focused on experiencing the K-lifestyle. As the everyday lives of Koreans, transmitted globally through K-content such as K-pop, movies, and dramas, are re-shared via social networking services (SNS), the main purpose of traveling to Korea has shifted to experiencing Korean food, cosmetics, fashion, medical services, and even unique niche services in exactly the same way. In a domestic market facing negative growth due to population decline, foreign tourists are like "welcome rain in a drought." With the era of nearly 20 million foreign tourists a year now at hand, The Asia Business Daily examines how inbound visitors are breathing life into the domestic market and explores pathways toward sustainable K-tourism.

Foreign tourists are browsing products at Lotte Mart Jaetapeullekseu Seoul Station branch. Provided by Lotte Mart

On February 9, one week before the Lunar New Year holiday, foreign visitors pulling travel suitcases streamed nonstop into Lotte Mart’s Jaetapeullekseu Seoul Station branch, which Lotte Mart operates at Seoul Station. At the grocery shelves, sales staff offering samples greeted visitors in a mix of Chinese and Japanese. At the baggage storage area set up at the entrance, several employees were busy organizing suitcases while simultaneously responding to inquiries from foreign customers.

Japanese female visitors, three middle and high school classmates traveling together in Korea, were packing up after filling two carts high with chocolate snacks, cosmetics, instant noodles, and fruit. Natsuko said, “I bought Korean food items and beauty products as gifts for my family,” adding, “There are similar products in Japan, but prices are lower here and there is a wider selection of what I’m looking for, so I buy in bulk.” She, who said she is from Tsushima, close to Korea, added, “I’ve visited Korea about five to six times since my school days, and there are now far more things I want to buy and places I want to visit than in the past,” and, “On this trip, I checked recommendations from other travelers on SNS and visited Seongsu-dong, which many Koreans frequent, to enjoy shopping and Korean food.”

The Era of 20 Million Foreign Tourists... Wallets Wide Open for K-Shopping

Foreigners are choosing cosmetics at an Olive Young store in Seoul. Yonhap News

In the endemic era of periodic infectious disease outbreaks, inbound tourism is now dominated by “following the everyday life of Koreans.” Starting with “Jjapaguri (Jjapaghetti + Neoguri)” featured in the movie Parasite, various types of Korean instant noodles have become a must-try item for foreign tourists, and unique spots such as jjimjilbangs, public bathhouses, and Korean medicine clinics that appear in the recent Netflix animated film K-Pop Demon Hunters (K-Pop Demon Hunters) are gaining popularity as unconventional tourist courses. Foreigners are spending more at everyday Korean shopping channels such as department stores and hypermarkets, while foreign visitors are also flocking into neighborhood commercial districts, including convenience stores, famous eateries, and cafes.

According to the retail industry on the 16th, at CU, the convenience store chain operated by BGF Retail, the number of transactions using overseas payment methods last year grew by 101.2% year-on-year. At CU’s ramen-specialty convenience store in Hongdae, which opened in 2023 as the first of its kind in the industry, foreign customers account for about 68% of sales, far outpacing domestic customers and turning the store into a tourist attraction. This is the result of a focused strategy on ramen, a representative K-food that foreign visitors often seek out when traveling in Korea.

At GS25, the convenience store chain operated by GS Retail, sales through easy-payment services for foreigners also increased by 74.2% last year compared with a year earlier. The company has been strengthening foreign tourists’ shopping and K-culture experiences by operating “K-Station” stores (63 locations) that gather K-food products, fresh-fruit-smoothie specialty stores (107 locations), and K-pop specialty stores (7 locations).

Department stores have also seen a sharp rise in foreign customers. Last year, foreign-customer sales at Lotte Department Store reached 734.8 billion won, up 28.5% year-on-year. Hyundai Department Store recorded about 700 billion won, a 25% increase. Shinsegae Department Store posted about 650 billion won, a 52.9% jump.

Korean Travel Completely Transformed from 10 Years Ago

This reflects a shift in foreign tourists’ shopping patterns compared with 10 years ago. According to the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, in 2015 the most preferred shopping facilities for foreigners were downtown duty-free shops, Myeong-dong, airport duty-free shops, small shops, and Dongdaemun Market, which together made up the top five, while hypermarkets and department stores were relatively lower on the list. By contrast, in the third quarter of last year, road shops, large shopping malls, department stores, downtown duty-free shops, and hypermarkets formed the top tier. This is interpreted as a move away from the previous group-tour model, where duty-free shops were a mandatory stop, toward foreign tourists preferring the same shopping facilities that many locals use.

The list of “favorite tourist spots during a trip to Korea” selected by foreign tourists has also changed over the past decade. Ten years ago, the top spots were Myeong-dong and Dongdaemun Market in Seoul, royal palaces, N Seoul Tower, and the Sinchon/Hongdae area. In the third quarter of last year, however, Myeong-dong, Hongdae, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seongsu-dong, and Gangnam Station led the rankings, with so-called “hot places” popular among younger Koreans gaining prominence.

In practice, the way foreigners travel in Korea has shifted from group tours to individual trips. The share of free independent travelers was 67.9% in 2015 and rose to 79.4% in the third quarter of last year, a span of 10 years. Over the same period, the share of group travelers using travel-agency packages and similar products fell from 26.2% to 12.5%.

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Industry insiders believe that the popularization of smartphones and SNS has accelerated this shift. A travel-industry official noted, “Regardless of age, people can now learn about local cultures through video platforms such as YouTube, and with just a few searches, they can easily access trip reports and experiences posted by other visitors on SNS,” adding, “Foreigners have no difficulty gathering the information they need to identify areas of interest and plan their own itineraries.”

Last year, the number of foreign visitors to Korea reached 18.94 million, the highest ever. By country, China ranked first with 5.48 million visitors. The annual number of Chinese visitors remained at a similar level to 10 years ago (5.47 million). Japan came in second with 3.65 million visitors, more than double the 1.8 million recorded a decade earlier. Taiwan (1.89 million), the United States (1.48 million), and Hong Kong (620,000) followed in the top tier. In particular, Taiwan saw its number of visitors to Korea increase more than threefold from 510,000 ten years ago, climbing from fifth to third place.

These visitors are especially notable for their strong desire to experience Korea’s food culture. According to domestic inbound tourism platform Creatrip’s report on inbound tourism trends for 2025, the menu item most frequently reserved by foreigners last year was fried chicken (34%), followed by soy sauce marinated crab (24%) and desserts (13%). In addition, foreign reservations for eel dishes jumped 33-fold year-on-year, while those for galbi (grilled ribs) rose 14-fold, indicating that interest is expanding to a broader range of Korean dishes. Lim Hyemin, CEO of Creatrip, said, “Foreign tourists do not want to simply check off a visit to Korea; they want to immerse themselves deeply in the everyday lives of Koreans.”

In Mapo-gu, Seoul, near Hongdae, foreign tourists are taking commemorative photos as snow falls. Yonhap News

Retail Industry Competes to Attract Highly Valued Foreign Visitors

The domestic retail sector is also actively targeting foreign free independent travelers. The three major department store groups have rolled up their sleeves to attract customers by offering brands, experiential elements, and promotions favored by foreigners. Notably, Lotte Department Store last year opened Kinetic Ground, a K-fashion specialty zone, at its main Sogong-dong store and at its Jamsil branch in Seoul. Its primary target is domestic and overseas customers in their 20s and 30s, and it brings together K-fashion brands such as Mardi Mercredi and Matin Kim, as well as other labels popular among younger shoppers, including The Barnnet, Koiseio, NOMANUAL, Bellier, and TETO. By regularly sharing information on giveaways and popular brands via Xiaohongshu, often referred to as “China’s Instagram,” the main store has seen foreign visitors, including customers from Greater China, account for 70% of total purchasers. A staff member at the Matin Kim store said, “More than 90% of our customers are from China, and many of them come after sharing information on SNS.”

Shinsegae Department Store operates a global VIP program, and last year both the number and sales of foreign VIP customers who spend 5 million won or more annually, and S-VIP customers (the highest tier, spending 30 million won or more a year), more than doubled compared with the previous year. At the main store’s Shinsegae Square, videos of K-pop artists popular with foreign visitors will be screened starting this month, and at the Gangnam branch’s food hall, K-food content will also be showcased. In addition, Hyundai Department Store, together with Incheon International Airport Corporation and the Visit Korea Committee, has operated a four-hour transfer tour that allows foreign travelers transiting through Korea to experience Korean shopping and culinary culture at The Hyundai Seoul.

Foreign tourists participating in the Hyundai Department Store transfer tour are experiencing Korean culture. Courtesy of Hyundai Department Store.

Other offline sales channels are also betting on foreigner-focused stores. At Lotte Mart’s Seoul Station branch, which is frequented by many foreigners using the Airport Railroad to travel to Incheon International Airport, the company has created a dedicated space called “Must-Haves of Korea: K-Food,” where it has brought together popular products such as dried seaweed, snacks, coffee, nuts, and instant noodles. Last year, foreign customers accounted for 40% of total sales at this store.

Temi, a traveler from Hong Kong, said, “I was able to find a wide range of information about traveling in Korea through Google reviews and SNS,” adding, “The appeal of traveling in Korea also lies in the well-developed commercial districts with plenty of stylish clothing, along with well-established facilities for beauty and medical services, including cosmetics.”