Japan beat South Korea in terms of attracting foreigners in 2015 as more travelers were encouraged to visit the island for shopping amid a cheaper yen and eased tax rules, a report showed Tuesday. 

The number of inbound tourists to South Korea had surpassed Japan's until 2014, but the trend reversed last year as Japan's tourism industry enjoyed a boom thanks to the cheaper local currency and a series of promotional efforts.

In contrast, South Korea suffered a drop in inbound travelers in the wake of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in late May.

As a result, Japan logged 11 trillion won ($9.23 billion) in tourism surplus, while South Korea booked about 6 trillion won in deficit, the Federation of Korean Industries said.

South Korea welcomed 6 million Chinese travelers from the mainland last year, surpassing Japan's 5 million. When combined with Taiwan and Hong Kong, Japan lured 10 million in total, outnumbering Korea's 7 million, the Seoul-based business lobby group said.

Travelers from other parts of the world to Japan also increased at a faster rate.

Last year 45 percent of travelers to South Korea were from China, while the corresponding figure for Japan was at 25 percent.

The KFI expected that Japan will continue to outperform South Korea this year as well, stressing efforts to diversify tourism sources to attract travelers from different backgrounds.

"It is easy to mistake the Korean tourism industry as doing well when looking at the surge in the number of Chinese travelers.

But in fact, South Korea fell behind the Japanese tourism industry," Eom Chi-seong, an international business director at FKI, said. "Industry officials and the government should beef up cooperation to establish promotion strategies customized for major countries." (Yonhap)