South Korea tourist numbers hammered by China boycott

People walk through an alleyway in the popular Myeongdong shopping district in Seoul on April 25, 2017. South Korea's tourist industry has been hammered by China's boycott over the deployment of US missile defence system. -AFP filepic

SEOUL: Chinese tourist numbers to South Korea plunged by two-thirds in April after Beijing banned tour groups over Seoul’s deployment of a US missile defence system, official statistics showed.

Beijing imposed a boycott from March 15 on Chinese tour groups visiting the South in a spat over the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.