The Korea Tourism Organization predicts that by the end of December, more than 17 million international tourists will have made a trip to Korea this year.
 
The number already topped 16 million as of Saturday.
 
Numbers up until November were up more than 30 percent from the same period last year.
 
More than seven and a half million Chinese tourists visited South Korea between January and November this year, a 36-point-six percent jump over the same period last year. However, the growth of inbound Chinese tourists is slowing down in the fourth quarter. 

The number of Japanese tourists rebounded to two-point-one million in the January-to-November period, almost reaching back 2014 levels.

The number of tourists from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia also posted a remarkable growth during the same period.

South Korea's tourism industry was hit hard by the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome last year.