"Drawn to Nature"...National Park Visitors Jump 6.5% to 43.3 Million Last Year

The Korea National Park Service announced on February 24, 2026 that, as of last year, the total number of visitors to national parks nationwide reached 43.31 million, an increase of 6.5% compared with the previous year.

Demand for visits to national parks, which had been recovering after COVID-19, rebounded to the 40 million range in 2024, and the scale of the increase expanded further last year.

The national park that attracted the largest number of visitors last year was Bukhansan National Park, which had 7.53 million visitors, accounting for 17.4% of the total.

Its location within one hour of the greater Seoul area, along with a variety of trails of different difficulty levels and city-style perimeter walking paths, led to increased use, and the number of visitors rose by 540,000 compared with the previous year.

Other parks with high visitor numbers included Gyeongju National Park with 4.21 million visitors, Hallyeohaesang National Park with 3.79 million visitors, and Jirisan National Park with 3.23 million visitors.

Geumjeongsan National Park. Korea National Park Service.

The park with the highest growth rate was Juwangsan National Park, which saw visitor numbers rise 11.9% year-on-year to 670,000. Although visitors to Juwangsan temporarily fell by 43% in March to April last year due to a large-scale wildfire, demand recovered thanks to the agency’s swift disaster restoration efforts, trail maintenance, strengthened safety management, and improved visitor services.

Gyeongju National Park also saw a 9.0% year-on-year increase in visitors due to heightened interest following the hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, while Naejangsan National Park, buoyed by increased demand during the autumn foliage season, recorded 2.21 million visitors, up 7.7%.

Joo Daeyoung, Chairman of the Korea National Park Service, said, “Even under difficult conditions such as wildfires, our efforts for swift restoration, thorough safety management, and improvements to the visiting environment have borne fruit,” adding, “We will strengthen disaster-prevention systems to respond to the climate crisis era and create a safe and pleasant visiting environment so that national parks can firmly serve as the nation’s leading natural retreat.”