The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) has tentatively estimated that eight-point-one million foreign tourists visited South Korea in the first half of this year, up 21 percent from the same period last year. 
The tentative figure is far higher than the six-point-six million posted in the first half of 2014 and the nearly six-point-seven million recorded in the first half of 2015. 
Last month, roughly one-and-a-half million foreigners visited South Korea, or more than double compared to June of last year, when the number of tourists plunged due to the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. 
In particular, the number of Japanese tourists, which had seen a continuous decline since October 2012, jumped ten percent compared to the first half of last year after posting growth for the first time in February. 
Tourists from Vietnam, Indonesia and India also surged sharply. 
The head of the KTO’s Overseas Marketing Department Ahn Deok-soo said that in the second half of the year, the agency will focus its marketing capability on qualitative growth, including boosting the development of high-quality tourism programs and medical tourism.