Vietnamese top international tourists in card spending in South Korea

Data released by the South Korean company on Wednesday showed that Vietnamese tourists’ per-capita authorized card transactions stood at 197,000 KRW ($147.21) each in 2022, 89% more than what they spent in the previous year.

This was higher than 188,000 KRW in card purchases by the second-biggest spender Japanese tourists, 171,000 KRW by Chinese visitors, 126,000 KRW by those from Taiwan, and 109,000 KRW by Americans.

For the last three years, Vietnamese spent the most when shopping at duty-free outlets and department stores, as well as on hospital visits and cosmetics in South Korea. Their spending at duty-free stores and department stores last year exploded by 1,837% and 400% year on year, respectively.

This result matched the purposes of Vietnamese tourists when coming to South Korea as surveyed by the Korea Tourism Organization, namely shopping, food, beauty care, and health care.