South Korea Cruise Arrivals Rise 12% to 1.28 Million Through August
Seogwipo, home to Gangjeong Cruise Port on Jeju Island’s southern coast, handled more than half of cruise arrivals through August; 148 ship calls are scheduled in the fourth quarter.
South Korea recorded 1.28 million foreign cruise passenger and crew arrivals in January-August 2026, up 12 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Tourism Organization. Chinese citizens accounted for 57.7 percent of the total, the largest nationality share.
Full-year arrivals could exceed 2 million, compared with the previous annual record of 1.6 million set last year. That would mean growth of more than 25 percent. The fourth-quarter schedule includes 148 cruise ship calls and 638,905 expected passenger arrivals.
Seogwipo, home to Gangjeong Cruise Port on Jeju Island’s southern coast, handled more than half of all cruise arrivals through August.
Chinese passenger traffic also reached Daesan Port in Seosan, South Chungcheong. The cruise ship Visio called there on June 27 carrying more than 1,500 Chinese tourists.
