Busan has been named the most satisfying travel destination in Asia by Chinese tourists, beating out Tokyo, Singapore, and Seoul. The southern Korean port city was highly rated for its combination of natural scenery and diverse experiential offerings.
According to the report "Seoul and Busan as Experienced by Chinese Tourists: A Comparative Evaluation of Experience Structures Among Major Asian Cities," released Tuesday by Yanolja Research, a specialized research institute for the travel and tourism industry, Busan ranked first overall in a satisfaction survey of major Asian cities by Chinese tourists. Singapore came in second, followed by Tokyo and Osaka. Seoul placed fifth.
The study analyzed 11,270 travel posts written in Chinese on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu and 18,694 Chinese-language reviews on Ctrip, China's largest online travel agency (OTA) platform. The comparative analysis covered eight major Asian cities, including Seoul and Busan.
For Busan, mentions related to nature accounted for the highest share at 38.2%, followed by food (23.8%) and shopping (16.4%). This indicates that Busan is perceived as a "complex experiential destination" that combines coastal scenery, relaxation, gastronomy, and leisure.
Busan's competitiveness stood out particularly in post-visit satisfaction analysis. In an overall tourism satisfaction comparison based on reviews, Busan recorded 4.723 points out of 5, ranking first among the eight cities surveyed. Choi Kyu-wan, a professor at Kyung Hee University's College of Hotel and Tourism Management, said, "Busan's strength is not simply that it has the sea, but that it has successfully transformed transportation, views, night scenery, food, photography, and leisure into one complete experiential structure organically combined with the sea." He emphasized, "Busan is a very meaningful case of diversifying marine resources into participatory experiential content."
Seoul had an overwhelmingly high share of shopping-related mentions at 38.2%. Tokyo also had a high shopping mention rate at 43.0%, but while Tokyo's shopping centered on the exploration of commercial spaces themselves such as Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Ginza, Seoul showed a purpose-driven shopping structure focused on duty-free shops, value-for-money items, and bargain hunting rather than spaces.
Yanolja Research pointed out that since the Chinese consumption paradigm has recently been shifting toward experience-oriented consumption, Seoul's price- and product-centered shopping faces the risk of being easily replaced by digital channels or overseas direct purchases. Ahn Ye-jin, a senior researcher at Yanolja Research, suggested, "K-beauty must be upgraded from simple cosmetics purchases to experiential wellness programs such as skin diagnostics, personal color analysis, and makeup classes." She added, "At the same time, fandom-based K-content should be transformed into permanent experiential spaces where visitors can see, feel, and enjoy diverse content firsthand to enhance travel satisfaction."
Through the report, Yanolja Research called for viewing Seoul and Busan not as individual competitors but as part of a "structurally complementary relationship" at the national level. The analysis suggests that while Seoul serves as the "absorbing capital" that draws tourists with K-consumption and K-content, Busan functions as the "experiential capital" where visitors feel Korea through marine leisure and local cuisine.
Soocheong Jang, director of Yanolja Research and professor at Purdue University in the United States, said, "The paradigm of global tourism competition is rapidly shifting from 'what do you possess' to 'what kind of experience do you design and how do you make people feel it.'" He added, "When the Seoul-Busan high-speed railway (KTX) axis is used as a strategic tourism route to organically connect Seoul's K-culture and shopping consumption experiences with Busan's marine and leisure experiences as a single representative Korean tourism course, Korea will be able to firmly establish itself as a 'complex experiential tourism country' representing Asia, beyond being a single-city destination."
