2016 Chinese business gets off to a roaring start in Korea

The Chinese tourism and travel retail business began with a bang in January with arrivals up by +32.4% year-on-year to 521,981, according to Korea Tourism Organization.

The growth is all the more impressive for coming off a strong base. January 2015 saw a similarly robust +32.9% rise to 394,345.

Departures by Koreans also rose strongly, up +15.1% in January to 2,112,337, following an impressive +20.1% increase in 2015.

The January figures will be much welcomed by Korean travel retailers after a difficult 2015 caused by the mid-year MERS crisis. Chinese arrivals dipped by -2.3% last year, a fall driven entirely by the catastrophic slump in tourism from June through August.

Japanese visitor arrivals remained soft in January, falling -2.0% to 136,884, following a -19.4% fall in 2015.

For 2015, Chinese visitors accounted for 45.2% of all arrivals, with the once dominant Japanese representing a mere 13.9% share.

Visitor arrivals by gender for January; Source: Korea Tourism Organization

Visitor arrivals by purpose and nationality for January; Source: Korea Tourism Organization

Outbound departures of Korean nationals by gender for January; Source: Korea Tourism Organization

Visitor arrivals by gender for 2015; Source: Korea Tourism Organization