South Korea bets on five regional airports to spread its tourism boom beyond Seoul
Source: Fortune ·
South Korea drew 18.9 million foreign visitors in 2025, yet only a third ventured outside Seoul.
From the source
South Korea plans to develop five new tourism hubs around regional airports, as the country tries to spread a record-breaking travel boom beyond the capital. The country drew 18.9 million foreign visitors in 2025, surpassing the previous high of 17.5 million set in 2019. Yet the boom is concentrated in Seoul, the country’s capital, particularly in trendy neighborhoods like Itaewon and Seongsu-dong. “Many foreign visitors come to Korea because of its culture, but only one-third ever travel outside of Seoul and the capital region,” Daehyun Kim, South Korea’s vice minister of culture, sports and tourism, said at the Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF) in Macau on Oct. 16. “For tourists to visit local areas, they need to be able to travel there directly without passing through Seoul—so we recently announced the plan to develop five major tourism hubs around five regional airports: Gimhae, Daegu, Cheongju, Muan, and Yangyang.” Seoul is also trying to tie the K-wave to rural destinations,…