VI
EN
The South Korean Ministry of Justice announced a two-year pilot program to expand the issuance of group tourist visas to citizens of three Southeast Asian countries: Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
This system was piloted from June 2023, aiming to attract tourists from these three countries. The criteria for group visa issuance, previously defined as "incentive tourism groups of more than 5 people for corporate tourism and sightseeing," has been changed to "regular tourism groups of more than 3 people."
Group tourist visas are a type of visa with simplified application procedures and visa assessment processes. The pilot program for group tourist visas allows Vietnamese tourists to travel to South Korea in groups of 5 to 30 people without needing to apply for individual visas. Tourists only need to apply for a group visa through a licensed South Korean travel agency.
This pilot program is good news for Vietnamese people who want to travel to South Korea.
This extension demonstrates the success of the pilot program in promoting tourism to South Korea from Southeast Asian countries. According to the South Korean Ministry of Justice, the number of Vietnamese tourists visiting South Korea under the pilot program doubled in 2023 compared to 2022.
This is good news for Vietnamese people who want to travel to South Korea. This pilot program makes applying for a South Korean tourist visa easier and more convenient, while also saving costs for travelers.
Thanks to the effectiveness of this system, the number of tour groups entering South Korea from Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia doubled from 23,781 at the beginning of 2023 to 47,397 by the end of that year.
Vietnamese tourists visiting South Korea increased by 40%.
The number of tour groups from the three countries entering South Korea in the first five months of 2024 reached 56,427, maintaining an upward trend.
However, the South Korean Ministry of Justice also pointed out that there are still cases of people staying in South Korea illegally to find work, so the ministry will continue to consider whether to officially implement the system.
In the latter half of 2023, the average rate of tour groups from three Southeast Asian countries who overstayed their visas in South Korea was 0.2%. The South Korean Ministry of Justice is gathering feedback from relevant departments and travel agencies to promote improvements to the visa issuance system.
