The government announced on the 27th that it will extend the pilot operation period for expanding the group tourist visa eligibility to three Southeast Asian countries?Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia?by two more years.
The Ministry of Justice has been operating an expanded issuance of group tourist visas with simplified application procedures since June 27 of last year to promote tourism from Southeast Asian visitors. The eligibility for group tourist visas was expanded to include "general travelers in groups of three or more." Previously, group tourist visas were only issued to "corporate incentive tour groups of five or more people and school field trip groups up to university level."
As a result of the one-year pilot operation of the expanded group tourist visa issuance, the number of group tourists entering from the three countries increased nearly twofold from 23,781 in the first half of last year to 47,397 in the second half. Furthermore, from January to May this year, the number rose further to 56,427, maintaining an upward trend.
However, there have been cases of illegal employment by those who obtained group tourist visas. The average rate of unauthorized departure as of the second half of last year was 0.2%.
An official from the Ministry of Justice stated, "While extending the pilot operation period by two years to attract Southeast Asian tourists, we will continuously monitor cases of unauthorized departure by group tourists and review whether to implement the system officially. We will also collect opinions from related ministries and the tourism industry to promote systematic and balanced improvements to the visa system."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
