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Chinese Visitors to Spend W2.7 Trillion in Korea This Year

Chinese tourists are likely to spend W1 trillion in Korea this year using China's largest credit card company Union Pay (US$1=W1,134). BC Card on Wednesday said Chinese visitors either withdrew from ATMs or made payments worth W662.3 billion with Union Pay cards in the first nine months of this year already.

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A BC Card spokesman said, "Because more than W50 billion have been spent on Union Pay cards by Chinese visitors during the Chinese national holiday week of Oct.1-7, it will not be difficult for the yearly figure to surpass W1 trillion by the end of this year". This exceeds the total of W830 billion Chinese visitors spent on Union Pay cards here over the whole of the last five years.

Chinese tourists use Union Pay (40 percent), Visa (40 percent) and other cards including Mastercard (20 percent) in Korea.

The Korea Tourism Organization said Chinese visitors will spend another W1 trillion on Visa and Mastercard and W700 billion in cash here this year, bringing the total to W2.7 trillion. The number of Chinese visitors rose from 1.34 million in 2009 to 1.87 million in 2010 and 1.68 million already in the first nine months of this year.

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