National Museum of Korea on track to see record visitors this year

The National Museum of Korea has already surpassed four million visitors this year, setting the stage for a historic milestone in annual attendance, according to data released by the museum Thursday.

The museum said it welcomed 4,073,006 visitors from January to Aug. 20, a figure 1.7 times higher than the 2.33 million recorded during the same period last year.

"This shows that public interest, both at home and abroad, in traditional Korean culture is greater than ever before," a museum official said on condition of anonymity.

It marks only the second time that the museum's annual attendance has exceeded four million. In 2023, it welcomed 4.18 million visitors, ranking sixth worldwide among museums and galleries in a survey conducted by the British art publication The Art Newspaper.

Officials noted this is the highest figure since the museum's founding in 1945 and predicted, if the current trend continues, the museum will break its own record by the end of the year.

Yonhap