Korean travellers dismayed as U.S., Japan grow unwelcoming to tourists

Visitors crowd a street leading to Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, Japan, July 18, 2025. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
Koreans traveled abroad in record numbers last year. Through November 2025, 26.8 million outbound trips were recorded, the highest figure on record. Japan and the United States dominated the flow. About 8.48 million Koreans visited Japan, and 1.64 million went to the United States. More than 10 million traveled to the two countries combined.
 
This year feels different. The Korean won has weakened as travel costs rise. And both the United States and Japan are moving to extract more money from foreign visitors while tightening rules in a way that many travelers find unwelcoming.
 
 
Since the launch of Trump’s second-term administration, the United States has steadily raised barriers for foreign entrants. In September 2025, the fee for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) was raised from $21 to $40, nearly doubling. The United States is also pursuing a policy requiring ESTA applicants to submit five years of social media information and 10 years of email addresses. After a 60-day public comment period, the policy is expected to take effect next month.
 
Koreans planning trips to the United States are worried about privacy intrusions, but many are also turning to self-censorship. Posts are piling up on U.S.-travel community sites, including comments like, “I have to go to the United States, so I deleted all my social media posts,” and, “I’m worried even my YouTube comments could cause problems.”
 
The United States also raised national park entrance fees for foreign visitors as of Jan. 1, in line with Trump’s policy stance. Foreign tourists visiting 11 popular national parks, including Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, must now pay an additional $100 on top of the existing $20 entrance fee per adult. If four adults visit the Grand Canyon without a private car, they would have to pay $480. The annual pass that allows entry to all U.S. national parks also jumped from $80 to $250, more than tripling the price.
 

Federal immigration officers wait for respondents in a hallway to conduct targeted detainments at U.S. immigration court in Manhattan, New York, on Jan. 12. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
As a result, secondhand trading of annual passes with time remaining is not uncommon on Korean resale sites. However, this is illegal. The U.S. National Park Service strictly prohibits the transfer of passes.
 
The United States has also been unsettled recently, with incidents such as the arrest of Venezuela’s president and a shooting involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. With exchange rates already unfavorable, and with the World Cup set to take place in North and Central America in June and July, lodging costs and prices are expected to climb even higher.
 
In Japan, municipalities are introducing or raising lodging taxes. The aim is to use tourists’ wallets to address the side effects of overtourism, such as traffic congestion and trash problems.
 

Tourists flock to Mather Point at Grand Canyon National Park, Oct. 1, 2025, in Grand Canyon, Arizona. [AP/YONHAP]

 
Kyoto, a city beloved by Koreans, will raise its lodging tax tenfold, from the current maximum of 1,000 yen ($6.31) per person per night to 10,000 yen starting March 1. In April, Hokkaido will introduce a lodging tax, with a rate of up to 500 yen, and 13 municipalities, including Sapporo, will also impose their own lodging taxes.  
 
Miyagi Prefecture also introduced a lodging tax on Jan. 13, and Tokyo is pursuing a plan to change its current 200 to 300 yen-per-night lodging tax to a 3 percent surcharge on the room rate.
 
It is not only local governments raising taxes. Japan’s central government will also triple its departure tax from 1,000 yen per person, about 9,300 won, to 3,000 yen, about 28,000 won, starting in July. For tickets purchased for departures from Japan beginning in July, the departure tax will be automatically included in the airfare.
 

Grounded Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) aircraft are parked at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on April 30, 2020. [EPA/YONHAP]

 
Because lodging and departure taxes apply equally to Japanese citizens, they may seem understandable. But the Japanese government is also considering a two-tier pricing system that would charge foreigners more for admission to 11 national museums and art museums.
 
Junglia, a theme park in Okinawa that opened last year, also drew controversy after adopting differential pricing that charges foreigners 27 percent more than domestic visitors.
 
“I never expected Japan to adopt a two-tier pricing system, something mostly used by developing countries,” said an avid Japan traveler who chose to stay anonymous. “If the yen strengthens even a little, I think I’d hesitate to travel to Japan.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY CHOI SEUNG-PYO [[email protected]]