Culture News
Herbal markets, fortune fairs and factory tours: how Seoul and China court visitors
More foreign tourists are coming back to Korea, according to a report by the Seoul-based travel platform CreaTrip, published on October 30 and reported by The Korea Herald. About 14.5% of foreign customers who had used the platform on an earlier trip returned within two years — one in seven — based on bookings from January to September, up 3.5 percentage points on a year earlier.
The Korea Herald's other reports the same day show what visitors find. At the World K-Medicine Culture Festival 2026 in Dongdaemun-gu, vendors and booths on Yangnyeongjungang-ro offered traditional Korean medicine experiences. In southern Seoul, the second Fortune Adventure fair at the aT Center in Yangjae opened with more than 200 booths covering at least 13 types of fortune-telling, from saju and face reading to tarot; a 10-minute reading costs 12,000 won ($8.40), and the fair runs until Sunday.
“We wanted to experience the medicine market out of curiosity and get an idea of life in Korea.” — Angela, a Belgian visitor, via The Korea Herald
The Hindu looked at a different model in China, where industrial tours show off innovation and manufacturing to instil national pride, and present science and engineering careers to young people.
How each outlet framed it
- The Korea Herald — the visitor's view: repeat trips, a herbal market festival and a fortune-telling fair.
- The Hindu — tourism with a national message: China's factory tours as pride and STEM recruitment.
What we don't know yet: the CreaTrip figure covers one platform's customers, not all foreign visitors to Korea.