Seoul's backstreets are the draw now, and the city must act fast

Do you remember the last time a famous gate or a palace courtyard was the best part of your trip? Seoul's numbers suggest a lot of travelers don't. They remember the café in a former factory, the alley they stumbled into, the pop-up that wasn't there last month.

The headline figures are big. Seoul drew a record 13.14 million foreign visitors from January to September 2026, up 21.5%, and card spending rose 57.7% to 8.8435 trillion won ($6.2 billion), according to Seoul Economic Daily. The city itself says Seongsu-dong, Ikseon-dong and Seosunra-gil have established themselves as new tourism districts alongside Myeong-dong and the royal palaces.

Spending grew more than two and a half times faster than arrivals, and that's the real story

Arrivals up 21.5% is impressive. Spending up 57.7% is the more interesting number. Visitors aren't just showing up in greater numbers. Each one seems to be doing more once they arrive. The city's own reading, in its first-half report, is that tourists increasingly want firsthand experiences of everyday culture rather than a checklist of major sights.

We think that's right, with one caveat. The same report shows shopping at 46.4% of card spending and medical and wellness at 24.4%. So "backstreet tourism" is not a monk-and-tea-house fantasy. It's cafés, beauty flagships and retail, often wrapped in a lovely industrial shell. Visit Seoul's official guide to Seongsu describes a neighborhood of former factories and workshops now holding cafés, flagship stores and K-beauty spaces. That is a good trip. It is also a commercial machine, and we should call it that.

Seongsu is the preview of Seoul's overtourism problem

The charm of a backstreet is that it's narrow. That is also its weakness. Chosun Biz reported in January that Seongsu's Yeonmujang-gil has a blurry line between sidewalk and road, with queue fences pushing pedestrians into traffic. It cited a floating population of about 76,000 per hectare in the third quarter of last year. Car restrictions apply only on weekend afternoons, and a district official worried about resident opposition to extending them.

We don't think this is a catastrophe yet. But it has the early shape of every overtourism story: a place becomes known for feeling undiscovered, then loses that feeling because everyone came to find it. Seoul's authorities are not blind to it. Cho Sung-ho, director general of the city's tourism and sports bureau, said the city will work to reduce the inconvenience to residents caused by tourist crowding. Good. But the same city's "3-3-7-7" vision aims for 30 million foreign visitors, seven-day stays and a 70% return rate. In our view, growth targets that large and backstreet livability pull in opposite directions unless someone designs for both.

What smart management and smart travelers should do

For the city, a useful lesson is already in the reporting. Chosun Biz pointed to overseas precedents: London's Exhibition Road, where the line between sidewalk and roadway was removed and accidents fell, and Barcelona's superblocks. A local transport professor argued for making drivers feel the street is pedestrian-first, for example with friendlier paving. We'd push further: treat pedestrian-first streets in Seongsu as basic infrastructure, not an experiment limited to weekends. The planned "Seoul Moonlight Night Markets" tied to backstreet districts could spread people out in time and space. Or they could simply add another crowd. The design will decide which.

For travelers, our advice is simple. Go to Seongsu, but don't make it your only neighborhood. In the first half of the year, Gangnam-gu, Jung-gu and Mapo-gu accounted for 65.0% of international visitors' card spending, the city says. Spreading your time beyond the obvious districts is exactly what can help ease that concentration. Visit on a weekday morning rather than a weekend afternoon. Walk the Seoul Forest side. Add a Han River evening, or try one of the city's hiking centers at Bukhansan, Bugaksan or Gwanaksan, which had logged about 47,000 foreign users cumulatively through the first half of this year.

Verdict

Seoul's best marketing is that it lets you wander. The numbers say the world has noticed. If the city keeps its alleys walkable and its residents on side, Seongsu can be a model for backstreet tourism. If not, it will be a cautionary tale with a very good coffee scene. We're cautiously optimistic, but the window to act is now, while the crowds are still a complaint and not yet a crisis.