More than one-point-48 million cruise ship passengers have made a stop in South Korea this year.
 
The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said Wednesday that foreign cruise ships carrying one-point-48 million passengers made about one-thousand-200 port calls in Jeju, Busan and Incheon from January through the end of September. The number of passengers is up 130 percent from the same period last year and 66 percent from 2014. Jeju received 920-thousand people, Busan 430-thousand and Incheon 120-thousand.
 
With an additional 240 port calls scheduled in South Korea for the rest of the year, it is expected that the number of cruise tourists visiting the nation will top two million by the end of this year, exceeding the nation’s initial goal of one-point-five million.1168
 
Each foreign cruise tourist spent an average 886 U.S. dollars during their stay in South Korea last year.
 
The ministry predicted that visits by two million cruise passengers will boost the local economy by generating consumption worth over two trillion won.