May 31, 2023
Border Controls

“Dire situation”: How COVID-19 is impacting the North Korea travel industry

With tourism to North Korea frozen after a record-breaking year, some believe visits won't be possible until 2021

Tourism to North Korea ballooned in 2019 to unprecedented levels, with NK News estimating a record 350,000 Chinese visited in a trend providing huge revenues to Pyongyang at a time of significant global sanctions pressure.

But fast-forward to 2020 and, because of the ongoing and sustained implications of COVID-19, the outlook for the DPRK travel industry could not be worse.