The number of foreign tourists who visited South Korea in the first quarter of this year reached over three-point-four million to post the largest quarterly figure since 2019. 

According to the Korea Tourism Organization(KTO) on Monday, the figure for the January-March period returned to 88-point-six percent of pre-pandemic levels recorded during the same period in 2019.

The number for March came to one-point-39 million to also post the largest monthly figure since 2019, returning to 97-point-one percent of pre-pandemic levels. 

Tourists from China took up the largest portion of foreign travelers both in the first quarter of 2024 and last month, as more than one million Chinese people and 391-thousand visited the country in the first quarter and last month, respectively. 

Japan came in second with 666-thousand tourists visiting South Korea in the first quarter and 339-thousand in March.