No. of inbound tourists from Taiwan to top 1 mil

The yearly number of Taiwanese tourists visiting South Korea will surpass the 1 million mark for the first time this week on the back of the popularity of Korean pop culture and low-cost carriers, Seoul's tourism promotion agency said Tuesday.

The number of visitors from the island has been on the rise in the past decade, from 320,000 in 2008 to 500,000 in 2012 and 925,000 in 2017, according to the Korea Tourism Organization.

(Yonhap)

Last year, Taiwanese made up the third-largest group of people to visit South Korea after Chinese and Japanese nationals.

The tourism promotion agency attributed the surge to the growing popularity of South Korean pop culture since the early 2000s, in addition to a sharp increase in flights connecting South Korea and Taiwan.

The agency is planning to take part in the four-day 2018 Taipei International Travel Fair, which will kick off Friday, to attract more Taiwanese visitors.

The total number of Taiwanese visitors to South Korea is expected to hover around 1.1 million this year, it added. (Yonhap)