Average spending by international tourists to South Korea has decreased steadily over the past year.
According to research conducted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Tourism Organization,... foreign tourists spent an average of 13-hundred U.S. dollars per trip in the first quarter of this year.
This is a twelve percent lower than the same period last year,... and the fourth straight quarterly drop.
Industry insiders attribute the falling numbers to Beijing's ban on Chinese group tourists to South Korea following Seoul's deployment of a U.S. missile defense system.