Seoul: Foreigners accounted for a quarter of attendees at the K-pop group BTS' comeback concert in downtown Seoul last weekend, city data revealed on Friday. A total of 19,170 foreign attendees were present at the event held at Gwanghwamun Square on Saturday evening. This accounted for about 25 percent of the 75,927 people in the area at that time, as per data from the Seoul city government.
According to Yonhap News Agency, among the foreigners, 13,898 were identified as long-term visitors, indicating that most of them were residents in the country, such as students, rather than tourists. The city had previously provided real-time estimates of up to 48,000 people in the area, but a city official noted that the latest figures are more accurate, being based on base station data.
The data further detailed the nationalities of the foreign attendees, with 1,740 Thais, 1,184 Vietnamese, 1,126 Indians, and 1,098 Japanese presumed to have attended the event. This analysis was based on foreigner entry statistics. Police had initially anticipated the concert would draw up to 260,000 people, prompting the implementation of strict crowd control and safety measures.