Because of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, it is expected that the number of foreign tourists who visited South Korea last year will have fallen below the 1 million mark.

877,000 foreigners visited the country from January to November, according to data from the state-run Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), representing a 64.3 percent decrease compared to the same period the previous year.

Given the fact that only 94,000 foreign tourists visited the country in November, it is almost certain that the total number of foreign tourists visiting the country in a single year fell below 1 million for the first time since data collection began in 1984. The previous record low was 129,700, which was set in that same year.

Several factors were cited as contributing to the decline, including strict travel restrictions imposed by countries around the world as the pandemic continued for almost two years.

China's tourist arrivals fell by 76.6 percent on the previous year to 159,000 in the 11-month period, with visitors from Japan falling by 96.7 percent to 14,000 from the same period the previous year. In comparison, during the same period in 2019, 5,514,000 tourists from China traveled to Korea to see the sights.

Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam all saw their numbers drop by 97.7 percent, 90.1 percent, and 76.1 percent, respectively, from the previous year.

Many countries have imposed travel restrictions as a result of the rapid increase in omicron cases, prompting industry sources to express concern that the number of foreign tourists will not be able to return to pre-pandemic levels for the foreseeable future.