SEOUL — Tourism-related complaints in South Korea have reached a record high in the first seven months of 2026, with problems involving taxi services, accommodation and shopping among the most common grievances.
A total of 1,753 complaints were recorded nationwide between January and July, exceeding the 1,744 cases reported throughout 2025, according to the Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO), citing figures released September 6 by its Korea Tourism Data Lab, as reported by The Korea Herald.
The complaints were submitted through the Tourist Complaint Centre website and the Korea Travel Hotline, 1330, which is widely used by foreign visitors who encounter language difficulties when attempting to raise issues directly.
Accommodation-related complaints accounted for the largest share, with 500 cases involving issues such as bookings being cancelled without the customer’s consent and excessive cancellation fees.
Shopping complaints ranked second at 376 cases, with visitors reporting disputes over prices and poor or discourteous service.
Airport and airline services generated 186 complaints, while taxi-related issues accounted for 182. These included drivers refusing to use meters and reckless driving.
Another 146 complaints concerned hotels, including cancellations made without customers’ consent as well as complaints about service and hygiene standards.
Concerns over accommodation cancellation policies have also surfaced around major events. Industry observers have pointed to repeated disputes involving accommodation bookings during high-profile events, including concerts by K-pop group BTS, warning that service issues could undermine South Korea’s growing tourism sector.
The number of complaints has risen sharply since travel restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic caused them to fall to historically low levels.
Complaints stood at 288 in 2022 before increasing to 902 in 2023, 1,543 in 2024 and 1,744 last year.
The first year of available data, 2018, recorded 1,263 complaints, followed by 1,165 in 2019. The figure then dropped to 364 in 2020 and 119 in 2021 before beginning to recover.
Seoul registered the highest number of complaints this year with 665 cases, followed by Busan with 594, Incheon with 176 and Jeju Island with 155.
Busan saw one of the sharpest increases, recording almost 2.5 times the 239 complaints it received during the corresponding period last year. The rise coincided with a BTS concert held in the city in June that attracted about 110,000 visitors.
Visitors from China lodged the highest number of complaints by nationality, with 680 cases. They were followed by South Koreans with 276, Japanese with 263, Taiwanese with 182 and Hong Kong visitors with 87.
The increase in complaints comes as South Korea experiences a strong recovery in international tourism. Foreign visitor arrivals surpassed 10 million during the first half of 2026 for the first time, while the country’s tourism balance recorded a surplus for several months.
