Tourists to South Korea drops 83% in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic

Tourists to South Korea dropped to a 32-year low this year, as global travel was nearly wiped out due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of tourists who visited the country from January to October was 2.39 million, down 83.6% compared to 2019, according to statistics released by the Korea Tourism Organization.

Half of the visitors totaled visited in January, while numbers dwindled into the 60,000 per month average range from late spring.

The number of visitors is the lowest since 2.34 million people visited Korea in 1988 when it opened its doors to the world for the Seoul Olympics.

Additionally, the number of Koreans traveling also reached a 22-year low with 4.2 million travelers heading overseas.

South Korea was hoping to attract 20 million tourists in 2020 before the pandemic hit.