South Korea is welcoming a growing number of Chinese tourists since China lifted a ban on group tours to its neighboring country on Aug. 10 after more than six years.

Compared with the pre-pandemic era, more Chinese are opting for independent travel rather than group tours and are spending less on duty-free shopping. A greater number of younger Chinese are visiting, boosting digital transactions at Korea’s convenience stores, tourism industry sources say.

The number of Chinese travelers to Korea in August reached 259,659, up 15.5% from July. The August figure is 10.4 times the January figure, according to state-backed Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) data on Friday.