Newly released figures show three out of four foreigners who visited South Korea last year were on independent tours and not part of package programs.
 
According to the 2016 International Visitor Survey released by the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute, 75 percent of foreigners who came to South Korea in 2016 were individual tourists.
 
This is up slightly from 73-point-8 percent tallied the previous year. The number includes those who booked their flights and accommodations through travel agencies but traveled on their own.
 
The survey was conducted on 12,003 foreigners aged 15 or older who stayed in South Korea for more than one day and less than a year.
 
By nationality, individual tours were prevalent among British tourists with 99-point-4 percent and those from the Middle East with 98-point-6 percent.
 
On the other hand, Chinese tourists, who accounted for 47 percent of all foreigners who came to South Korea last year, showed a higher-than-average preference for package tours, with numbers standing at 37-point-4 percent.