Exports of international tourism stand out within Korea’s service sector with amounts now equivalent to those of the nation’s major industries. In 2019 before the outbreak of COVID-19, the number of foreign tourists visiting Korea recorded an all-time high of 17.5 million, with tourism exports reaching about USD 20.7 billion. The record is outstanding, even when compared with other industries leading the nation’s exports. For quite some time, however, domestic and international tourism activities have been restricted by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020, and the tourism industry has experienced a major downturn as it is a face-to-face service industry based on travelling, According to the 2021 Tourism Industry Survey of the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the revenue of businesses categorized by the Tourism Promotion Act as tourism businesses declined from KRW 26.8138 trillion in 2019 to KRW 8.2024 trillion in 2020 and KRW 10.5006 trillion in 2021, with the number of people working in tourism businesses plunging from 276,447 in 2019 to 191,524 in 2020 and 195,280 in 2021.

Whereas domestic tourism recovered relatively early after the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, the recovery of foreign inbound tourism began only in the second half of 2022 with the full-fledged easing of COVID-19-related restrictions. Accordingly, the recovery of tourism exports has been relatively slow.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Korea was only about 967,000 in 2021, but the number more than tripled to about 3.198 million in 2022. The recovery has continued in 2023, with about 2.603 million foreigners visiting Korea from January to April, which is about 47.5% of the same period of 2019.

By country, 482,000 Japanese tourists visited South Korea from January to April 2023, followed by the United States (291,000), China (250,000), Taiwan (238,000), and Thailand (151,000).

In the 6th Master Plan for Development of Tourism (2023-2027), the Korean government set 'Korea, an Attractive Tourist Destination with K-Culture' as a vision to revitalize the tourism industry dampened by COVID-19, and announced four goals and strategies to achieve the vision. As a strategy to boost tourism exports, the plan suggests diversifying the inbound market, promoting tourism by combining with K-culture, and providing convenient tourism services, thereby attracting foreign tourists and boosting consumption.

On June 5, 2023, the government announced a plan to provide more customized support for promising export sectors, including tourism, at a meeting of the Service Industry Development Task Force. Devised to boost exports of the tourism industry, the plan focuses on developing attractive tourism contents combined with K-culture and improving the convenience of foreign tourists visiting Korea.

According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the global international tourism market has recovered to 80% of its pre-COVID-19 level in the first quarter of 2023. In comparison, the Asia-Pacific region including Korea has been the slowest to recover and its tourism market only reached 54% of the same period in 2019. As international tourism has resumed in earnest, countries around the world are actively attracting foreign tourists to rebuild their tourism industries shattered by COVID-19.

As more foreigners start visiting Korea, the government has also announced and promoted policies to swiftly rebuild inbound tourism. In order to expand tourism exports going forward, it is necessary to attract more foreign tourists visiting Korea and strengthen strategies to increase the spending of tourists by actively attracting high value-added tourists and stay-over tourists. In addition, it is important to encourage foreign tourists to visit local areas so that they can spend in local areas and help revitalize the local economy.