Average spending by international tourists to South Korea has decreased steadily over the past year.<br />According to research conducted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Tourism Organization,... foreign tourists spent an average of 13-hundred U.S. dollars per trip in the first quarter of this year.<br />This is a twelve percent lower than the same period last year,... and the fourth straight quarterly drop.<br />Industry insiders attribute the falling numbers to Beijing's ban on Chinese group tourists to South Korea following Seoul's deployment of a U.S. missile defense system.<br /><br />
