SEOUL, June 24 (AJP) - Foreign visitors spent a record 2.12 trillion won (.4 billion) on credit cards in South Korea in May as cumulative arrivals surpassed 10 million nearly a month earlier than last year, government data showed Wednesday.
The May figure, which includes online purchases, marked the first time monthly card spending by foreign visitors exceeded 2 trillion won since data collection began in 2018.
Card spending from January through May reached 7.98 trillion won, up 47.3 percent from the same period last year. Visitor arrivals rose 21 percent over the same period to 8.72 million.
Preliminary figures showed that cumulative arrivals passed 10 million on June 20. South Korea reached the same milestone in mid-July last year.
China and Japan remained the two largest source markets in May, with 563,600 and 357,530 visitors, respectively.
Arrivals from Taiwan increased 27.6 percent from a year earlier, Hong Kong 16.6 percent, the Americas 16.5 percent and Europe 24.1 percent.
More foreign visitors are also entering South Korea through regional airports. Such airports handled 361,473 arrivals in May, up 32 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 15.7 percent increase at airports serving the Seoul metropolitan area.
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