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In May, a month before BTS's Busan concert, tourism complaints filed in the city exceeded half of the national total.
May Busan complaints top half of nationwide total
According to the Korea Tourism Organization's "Korea Tourism Data Lab" on the 10th, 185 of the 368 tourism complaints filed nationwide last month — more than half, at 50.3% — were concentrated in Busan. Complaints from the rest of the country, excluding Busan, totaled just 183. The figure amounts to 77.4% of Busan's entire complaint count last year (239), accumulated in just one month. This is interpreted as the result of an explosion of grievances, mainly among foreign tourists, ahead of the "BTS World Tour Arirang IN Busan" concert.
Busan's share of the national total had not previously been at this level. In 2022 and 2023, as the post-pandemic recovery took hold, it ranked second after Seoul at 19.8% and 13.4%, respectively. But in 2024 and last year it slipped to third (11.9%, 13.7%), trailing Seoul and Jeju, and Seoul and Incheon. This year, complaints fell steadily from 148 in January to 49 in February and 38 in March, rose slightly to 48 in April, then surged to 185 in May.
Lodging complaints make up 70% of total
By type, "general accommodations" — involving issues such as unilateral booking cancellations and excessive penalty charges — dominated with 133 cases. "Hotels" (21 cases), where booking cancellations and poor service or hygiene were problems, came next, followed by "airports and aviation" (9 cases) and "taxis" (7 cases). Lodging-related complaints, combining general accommodations and hotels, totaled 154 — 83% of the overall figure.
Foreigners accounted for 83.8% of complainants, far exceeding domestic complainants (16.2%). After BTS's Busan concert schedule became known, controversy erupted as some lodging rates surged more than tenfold, and existing bookings were unilaterally canceled and resold at higher prices. Foreign visitors to Korea were shown to have borne the brunt of booking cancellations and price spikes.
In response, the central and local governments stepped up crackdowns and guidance targeting lodging and public transportation operators in the name of eradicating price gouging, but the surge in May complaints shows the effect was limited. With K-pop events drawing international fans paradoxically deepening foreign tourists' grievances, the time has come for authorities to devise more fundamental measures.
