Tourists from the Middle Eastern countries have spent the most during their visit to South Korea, with an average individual spending exceeding $16,000 per visit, government data showed Thursday.

According to Korea Culture & Tourism Institute’s survey on foreign individual tourists in Korea, top one percent of high spending foreign visitors spent an average of $16,690 per person last year. Visitors from Middle Eastern countries including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were the most lavish spenders, accounting for 22 percent in the top one-percent high spending tourist group.

Chinese tourists came in second with 17.1 percent, followed by visitors from the U.S. with 15.4 percent, Malaysia with 10.6 percent, Russia with 6.5 percent, Australia with 4.9 percent, France with 3.3 percent, and Taiwan with 3.3 percent.

The survey also found that 46.3 percent in top one-percent high-spending tourists have revisited Korea, higher than 38.6 percent in case of overall foreign visitors. Also, a 66.7 percent of high spending tourists responded they were satisfied with their trip to Korea versus 43.0 percent of all foreign visitors.

The survey results were based on the responses from individual tourists who had either booked flight only or both flight and hotel before visiting Korea, according to the state-run tourism research organization.

By Shin Ik-su

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