SEOUL, July 22 (AJP) - Busan has emerged as one of Asia’s hottest urban escapes, drawing travelers with its beaches, seafood, cinematic coastal scenery and the hometown appeal of BTS members Jimin and Jungkook.
Chinese can now be heard across the southern port city, but increasingly it is not the Mandarin typically associated with mainland visitors. Taiwanese travelers have become one of Busan’s largest and fastest-growing visitor groups, helping transform the city from a secondary stop after Seoul into a destination in its own right.
A new expression circulating on social media in Taiwan, mainland China and Japan captures the mood: “Busan sickness.”
The phrase describes the lingering longing travelers feel after leaving the city. Once commonly associated with “Seoul sickness,” the post-trip nostalgia appears to have shifted southward as Busan gains a stronger identity among young Asian travelers.
The boom is visible in the numbers.
Busan welcomed 1.94 million foreign visitors in the first five months of 2026, up 40 percent from a year earlier and 78.4 percent from the same period in 2019, according to the Busan Tourism Organization’s latest data.
The figure represented 22.2 percent of South Korea's 8.72 million inbound visitors during the period, meaning more than one in five foreign tourists visiting Korea traveled to Busan.
While nationwide inbound tourism grew about 21 percent, Busan expanded at nearly twice that pace, cementing its status as one of Asia's fastest-rising urban tourism destinations.
In May alone, the city received 460,683 international visitors, a 42.9 percent increase from a year earlier and 83.7 percent above the pre-pandemic level recorded in May 2019.
Some 84,502 Taiwanese visitors traveled to Busan in May, up 46.3 percent from a year earlier and more than four times the May 2019 level. They accounted for 18.3 percent of all foreign visitors that month, nearly matching mainland Chinese travelers, who made up 19.4 percent.
Over the January-May period, Taiwan was Busan’s largest single visitor market, with 375,322 arrivals and a 19.4 percent share. Mainland China followed with 359,981 visitors, or 18.6 percent, while Japan accounted for 233,685, or 12.1 percent.
Mainland Chinese tourism is also recovering rapidly. Their arrivals nearly doubled from a year earlier to 89,275 in May and were almost three times the corresponding 2019 level. But the strong Taiwanese presence has changed the linguistic and cultural complexion of Busan’s tourism districts, particularly around Haeundae, Gwangalli and popular shopping areas.
The city’s broader tourism surge has also translated into heavier spending. Foreign visitors spent 132.2 billion won ($95 million) in Busan in May, more than 2.5 times January’s 51.2 billion won, according to city data. Busan retained its position as South Korea’s second-largest destination for foreign tourist spending after Seoul for a third consecutive month.
The appeal is also reflected in online sentiment.
An analysis by Yanolja Research of 11,270 Chinese-language travel posts on Xiaohongshu and 18,694 reviews on Ctrip ranked Busan first in overall satisfaction among eight Asian cities, ahead of Tokyo and Singapore, with an average score of 4.723 out of five.
Nature accounted for 38.2 percent of Busan-related mentions, followed by food at 23.8 percent. The finding suggests that the city’s appeal comes less from the sheer number of attractions than from the concentration and intensity of the experiences it offers.
Busan’s first advantage is its highly photogenic landscape.
Unlike the dense and relentlessly paced capital, Busan is increasingly perceived as a place that feels distinctly Korean but is less exhausting. Its geography places expansive coastlines beside urban neighborhoods, giving travelers beaches, cafés, markets and nightlife within a relatively compact area.
Haeundae, Gwangalli and Gamcheon Culture Village have long appealed to social media users. More recently, attractions that let visitors experience the sea rather than merely view it have widened the city’s draw.
The Haeundae Blueline Park beach train, promoted on Xiaohongshu as a “train running by the sea,” has become one of the city’s most recognizable images. Yacht tours, Skyline Luge and the X the Sky observatory have similarly helped turn Busan’s coastline into an activity-driven tourism product.
Affordability is another strength.
Local dishes such as pork-and-rice soup and milmyeon wheat noodles offer inexpensive alternatives to the increasingly costly dining scene in Seoul. That value has proved especially attractive to Taiwanese visitors, who can reach Busan on direct flights to Gimhae International Airport in about two hours.
Travelers from parts of Japan enjoy similarly easy access, allowing Busan to function as a convenient weekend destination rather than an extension of a longer trip to Seoul.
Yanolja Research said Busan was moving beyond its traditional image as a city of beaches and scenery by combining marine resources with transportation, observation decks, leisure activities and entertainment.
The result, it said, was a new model of an “Asian experiential tourism city” built around the sea.
The latest tourism figures suggest the model is working. Busan is no longer merely South Korea’s second city or a seaside add-on to Seoul. For a growing number of Asian travelers, it has become the Korean city they miss once they leave.
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