▲ Citizens pose for photos in front of a large South Korean flag at Seodaemun Prison History Hall in Seoul on Aug. 13, 2026, two days before the 81st anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule. (Yonhap)

 

SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Yonhap) -- While the number of foreigners visiting South Korea has surged on the back of K-pop's global popularity, "dark tourism" aimed at introducing the tragedies and pain of Korea's modern history, which helped shape the country today, remains in its infancy.

 

Dark tourism refers to travel to sites associated with tragic history, including wars, massacres and disasters.

 

Notable examples include the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York, Cambodia's Killing Fields, where mass killings took place, and the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, Japan.

 

▲ Foreign tourists crowd Bukchon Hanok Village in Jongno-gu, Seoul, July 28, 2026. (Yonhap)

 

In South Korea, Seodaemun Prison History Hall, which preserves the painful memories of Japan's colonial rule, and the former Namsan intelligence office in Namyeong-dong, a symbol of state violence, are among the country's representative dark tourism sites.

 

Yet visitor numbers at such sites are far lower than those at major tourist attractions.

 

According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Tourism Knowledge & Information System, 2,783,998 foreign tourists visited Gyeongbok Palace last year, up from 2,027,087 in 2024.

 

By contrast, only 1,433 foreign visitors went to Seodaemun Prison History Hall in 2024.

 

Seodaemun Prison History Hall did not even rank among Seoul's top 10 tourist attractions. The ministry designates 18 sites in Seoul as tourist attractions considered important for tourism policy, including Gyeongbok Palace, the National Museum of Korea, the Seoul Museum of Art, Lotte World, Seoul Sky and Seodaemun Prison History Hall.

 

Seodaemun Prison is notably absent from the list of popular attractions.

 

Searches on travel platforms such as Klook show numerous tours for foreigners covering palaces and markets, including Gyeongbok Palace and Changgyeong Palace, while there are only one or two tour products focused on modern and contemporary history, including Seodaemun Prison.

 

Lee Yong-gyu, CEO of Travel Label, which offers tours of Seodaemun Prison, said, "Seoul tourism often starts with palaces from the Joseon Dynasty and hanok villages before moving straight on to shopping, food and K-pop experiences. There tends to be less interest in the painful history of modern and contemporary Korea."

 

Park Ho-young, head of Seoul operations planning at Tour Story, said, "We offer 16 tours of Seodaemun Prison and the former intelligence office in Namyeong-dong a month, but half are canceled because we fail to attract enough participants. Demand is clearly lower than for other tours."

 

The large number of Chinese and Japanese tourists is also a burden for tour operators.

 

Because historical disputes between countries stemming from the complicated history of modern Korea continue to this day, operators say they find it difficult to explain the historical significance accurately and in a balanced manner.

 

Official programs run by tourism authorities and the Seoul metropolitan government are also lacking.

 

An official at the Seoul Myeongdong Tourist Information Center said, "We receive many inquiries about concerts and festivals, but there is not much interest in historical sites in Seoul. There is no official walking tour that brings these sites together, and private companies are mainly offering such products."

 

The Seoul Tourism Organization's tourist guidebooks provide introductions to individual sites, but do not offer multilingual walking routes that allow visitors to understand the historical context as they follow the course.

 

Experts emphasize that promoting dark tourism should not focus solely on conveying the pain of history.

 

The key, they say, is creating an appealing experience.

 

Oh Je-yeon, a professor of history at Sungkyunkwan University, said, "Rather than conveying overly detailed information, we need to develop storytelling techniques that allow foreign visitors with no prior knowledge to find the subject interesting."

 

He added, "Some overseas textbooks still introduce South Korea simply as a country that was once a 'vassal state of China' or one that developed under Japanese colonial influence. We need to show tourists the efforts and agency of Koreans in shaping the country from liberation to the present day."

 

Seo Kyung-duk, a professor at Sungshin Women's University, said, "Foreigners are drawn to South Korea by Korean Wave culture, so they are sufficiently interested in its history as well, but they lack basic information. Local governments should develop dark tourism courses and continuously promote them through social media and other channels."

 

He also called for the use of historical monuments in areas frequently visited by foreign tourists.

 

Seo suggested the statue of independence activist Kang Woo-kyu in front of Seoul Station, a bust of independence activist Lee Hoe-young in Myeongdong, and traces of the former Joseon Shrine on Namsan, known as the "Samsuni Steps," as potential tourist attractions.

[ⓒ K-VIBE. 무단전재-재배포 금지]