Foreign tourists spent 7.78 trillion won ($5.79 billion) by card in Seoul between January and August, a 59.9% increase on the same period last year, according to figures released by the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Tuesday. Visitor numbers rose 21.6% over those eight months, which means spending grew roughly 2.8 times faster than arrivals.
The eight-month total already equals about 98% of the 7.94 trillion won that foreign visitors spent in the capital across the whole of 2025. August alone brought in 1.03 trillion won, up 58.1% year on year, and monthly card spending has now stayed above 1 trillion won for five months in a row since April. Seoul took 69.3% of foreign tourists’ offline card spending nationwide in August and 71.1% over the January to August period. Shopping made up 46.6% of the total, followed by medical and wellness services at 23.8%, food and beverages at 13.2% and accommodation at 10.4%. Spending at large shopping malls climbed 77.5% to 1.70 trillion won, with an 88.3% jump in August alone. Medical tourism spending rose 64.2%, restaurant spending 59.5% and beauty businesses 39.7%. Restaurants did especially well in August, when their takings from foreign visitors were up 80.3%. Taken together, shopping and medical and wellness services accounted for more than 70% of everything foreign tourists spent in the city.
The money is also moving beyond the city’s best-known shopping districts. Spending in neighbourhood commercial areas rose 80.9%, compared with 57.6% in established commercial districts and 50.1% in traditional markets. Seongsu-dong produced the sharpest gains: the area around Dosan Park was up 240.1%, the streets around Gyeongsu Elementary School rose 206.6% and the Seongsu cafe street gained 109.3%. Among the markets, Gwangjang Market recorded a 127.4% rise and Namdaemun Market 67.9%.
Arrivals are setting records too. About 1.72 million foreign tourists visited Seoul in August, up 23.3% and the highest monthly figure on record, while the January to August total reached 11.56 million, the most for that period. The city said these are provisional estimates, calculated by applying Seoul’s 2025 visitation rate of 76.8% to Korea Tourism Organization inbound figures. China was the largest source market in August with 636,000 visitors, or 36.9% of the total, followed by Japan with 322,000, or 18.6%, and Taiwan with 188,000, or 10.9%. The three markets together supplied about two-thirds of August arrivals.
