The number of Chinese tourists shot up 37.6 percent.

In March last year, China banned group tours to South Korea in retaliation over Seoul's deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system.

The ban was partially lifted since late last year, although China has yet to completely lift restrictions.

The number of visitors from Japan also jumped 61.7 percent, thanks to a major K-pop festival held in South Korea's southeastern port city of Busan, it said. Visitors from Taiwan rose 22.5 percent.

The tourism promotion agency said the yearly number of Taiwanese tourists visiting South Korea will surpass the 1 million mark for the first time this week on the back of the popularity of Korean pop culture and low-cost carriers.

Meanwhile, the number of outbound South Korean tourists came to 2.23 million in October, up 5.2 percent from a year ago, it said. (Yonhap)