France is the most popular country for travel in the world, data showed on Wednesday. South Korea came in at 25.According to data portal World Statistics, France had the most tourists last year at 81.4 million. About 9.8 million travelers visited South Korea.After France came the United States with 62.7 million visitors, followed by China, Spain and Italy with 57.6 million, 56.7 million and 46.1 million, respectively.By Lee Shin-young, Intern reporter (sylee@heraldcorp.com)

LOS ANGELES ― Chen Si, 35, and her husband visited Los Angeles from Shanghai for the first time in December, excited about local attractions like Disneyland and Hollywood.They were less enthused about the idea of American food. They booked a room in San Gabriel, where friends said they could find “acceptable” Chinese food in the surrounding neighborhood, Si said.The once-quiet suburb about 19 kilometers east of downtown Los Angeles is in the midst of a transformation built on the growing interna

CARLSBAD, California ― It’s mid-afternoon on a hot summer day. After a full morning at a theme park, energy is running low. While the adults are ready to leave the fun behind for a few hours of rest, there are many in the party who don’t want to leave.Legoland has come up with a solution.The Legoland Hotel, which opened in April, sits just outside the entrance to the theme park. The three-story, 250-room hotel is an explosion of primary colors made to resemble the colorful structures that can be

CAPE TOWN, South Africa ― I’m normally not a morning person. But by 5 a.m. on my first full day in Cape Town, the sun has risen high enough to peel back the curtain of night and reveal the majesty of Table Mountain. Sleep no longer interests me. I sip hot tea, nibble the chocolate truffle left during turndown service the night before, slide open the doors and take in the view. Behind me, television continues 24/7 commercial-free programming ― tributes, interviews and news about Nelson Mandela. T

MINNEAPOLIS ― The northern lights rise like glowing pillars and then unfurl to stretch across the night sky. They wave like a flag, shimmering green with purple at the fringes, below a tapestry of stars. Sometimes they transform nearly the whole sky into their dance floor, flitting north and south in hues from blue to yellow and even pink and red. The beauty is astounding; it’s almost surreal. Or so I’ve been told. The aurora borealis ― and its southern counterpart, the aurora australis ― starts

Located smack-dab in the heart of Korea’s largest retail district of Dongdaemun ― home to 26 shopping centers and around 30,000 local specialty shops ― and situated directly across from one of Seoul’s most iconic national treasures, the East Gate, is the new JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square Seoul, which officially opened its doors to the public on Tuesday.“South Korea is one of Asia’s fastest-growing global economies and a strategically important North Asian travel hub,” said Simon Cooper, presiden