Shoppers walk down a street in Myeong-dong, central Seoul, on Saturday. (Yonhap) A little over 10 million foreigners visited South Korea in the first half of this year, an increase of 21.3 percent compared to the same period in 2025, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Tuesday.The country had 1.99 million visitors in June, up 23.1 percent from the same month last year, bringing the accumulated number of foreign visitors in H1 to 10.7 million.By place of origin, June visitors from China led with 649,582, followed by those from Japan at 348,216, and Taiwan at 223,127. Visitors from the Americas and Europe accounted for 219,948 and 119,445, respectively. Visitors from China also recorded the largest on-year increase with 36.2 percent, followed by 35.3 percent for Taiwan.Some 1.72 million of the 1.99 million visitors in June traveled via air. The majority of overseas tourists arrived at airports in the Seoul metropolitan area — which includes Incheon Airport, the nation's largest. The number of those using airports in other regions increased to 395,246, marking a 42.5 percent on-year increase from June 2025.Foreign credit and debit card use in June reached 2.05 trillion won ($1.4 billion), surpassing the 2 trillion won mark for the second straight month. Accumulated card spending for the first half of 2026 reached 10.04 trillion won, up 50.8 percent from the same period last year.The ministry said the increase in foreign visitors is thought to have substantially contributed to the local economy. Last year, spending on foreign credit and debit cards only surpassed the 10 trillion won mark in September.