The South Korean Ministry of Justice announced a two-year pilot program to expand group tourist visas for citizens of three Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
This regime will be applied on a pilot basis from June 2023, aiming to attract tourists from these three countries. The group visa category is "enterprise incentive tour groups and sightseeing tours of more than 5 people" which will be changed to "regular tour groups of more than 3 people".
Group tourist visa is a type of visa with simplified application process and visa assessment procedures. The pilot program for issuing group tourist visas allows Vietnamese tourists to travel to Korea in groups of 5 to 30 people without having to apply for individual visas. Tourists only need to apply for a group visa through a travel agency licensed by Korea.
This pilot is good news for Vietnamese people who want to travel to Korea.
The extension reflects 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 to South Korea under the pilot program has doubled in 2023 compared to 2022.
This is good news for Vietnamese people who want to travel to Korea. This pilot program makes applying for a Korean tourist visa easier and more convenient, while also saving costs for tourists.
Thanks to the effectiveness of this regime, the number of group visitors entering Korea from Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia doubled from 23,781 people at the beginning of 2023 to 47,397 people at the end of that year.
Vietnamese tourists to Korea increased by 40%
The number of group visitors from the three countries entering Korea in the first five months of 2024 reached 56,427 people, maintaining an increasing trend.
However, the Korean Ministry of Justice also pointed out that there are still cases of people staying in Korea illegally to find work, so the ministry will continue to consider whether to officially implement the above regime or not.
In the second half of 2023, the average rate of group tourists from the three Southeast Asian countries who absconded and stayed in Korea was 0.2%. The Ministry of Justice is gathering opinions from relevant agencies and travel agencies to promote improvements to the visa system.
