Methodology — The Visitors Index

Source: Korea Tourism Statistics (arrivals by nationality) (출입국관광통계), 국가승인통계 제314004호 — compiled by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism · Korea Tourism Organization, built on immigration records from the Ministry of Justice. Published monthly on the Korea Tourism Data Lab. License: KOGL Type 0 (공공누리 0유형 — 자유이용·조건 없이 이용). Retrieved 2026-10-17.
How the ranking works: Nationalities are sorted by arrivals in Jan–Aug 2026. YTD totals sum January through the cutoff month and are checked against the source’s year column. Growth compares with the same period in the previous year (Jan–Aug 2025), using (current arrivals ÷ previous-period arrivals − 1) × 100 from the same table. Continental subtotals, overseas-Korean rows and sub-breakdowns in the source sheet are excluded so no visitor is counted twice.
Update cadence: The source publishes monthly with a one-to-two-month lag. We refresh from published monthly data and label whether the index covers a full year or January through the cutoff month. The current period is Jan–Aug 2026.

Limits worth knowing before you cite this

Arrivals are not people. One frequent business traveller from Tokyo counts every trip. High-frequency short-haul markets (Japan, China, Taiwan) are boosted by this relative to long-haul ones.
This is not the total of all entrants or all foreign entrants. The series adds overseas Korean national arrivals and seafarers or crew to foreign entrants, while excluding foreign entrants in certain statuses: diplomatic, military, permanent resident, visiting or cohabitation, and residence. See the official definitions.
Nationality is passport, not residence. A Korean-American on a US passport counts as United States; the sheet’s overseas-Korean rows are excluded from this ranking.