Over 2 Million Chinese Tourists... Government Vows to Eradicate Dumping Tourism and Forced Shopping

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Regulates Zero-P2-You and Forced Shopping
Maintaining Order in Travel Industry, Enhancing Satisfaction of Visitors to Korea

The government is taking measures to eradicate 'dumping group tour packages' targeting Chinese tourists. It will strengthen punishment standards for travel agencies that attract tourists at excessively low prices and force shopping to collect commissions, lacking rationality in their profit structures.

Foreign tourists wearing hanbok are sightseeing at Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

On June 30, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that from July 1, it will revise the 'Guidelines for Travel Agencies Dedicated to Attracting Chinese Group Tourists' to establish detailed types and disposition standards for acts of 'disorderly conduct in the travel industry' and set regular inspection standards for profit structures reported in the electronic management system.

Through this, the plan is to prevent dissatisfaction factors among visitors caused by qualitative dumping tourism and forced shopping, and to protect the image of Korean tourism.

In April, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism received an on-site proposal from the Korea Association of Travel Agents to eradicate illegal business practices, and after gathering opinions from the field and legal circles until June, it announced the revised guidelines that subdivide the three major types of disorderly conduct in the travel industry within the guidelines for travel agencies dedicated to China.

The problematic types include △cases where no expenses are received from local Chinese companies (so-called 'Zero Fee Tour') △cases where tourists are forced to shop △cases where legitimate fees are not paid to tour guides and interpreters. Travel agencies corresponding to these types will be punished differently according to the number of violations detected.

Additionally, the profit structures reported quarterly by Chinese dedicated travel agencies to the Ministry’s electronic management system will be inspected, and if the profit structure is irrational, such as excessive reliance on shopping commissions, they will be classified as 'low-cost tours.' In cooperation with the Korea Association of Travel Agents, the Korea Duty Free Shops Association, and duty-free shops, on-site inspections will also be conducted to determine whether travel agencies leading Chinese group tourists to visit duty-free shops are designated as dedicated travel agencies.

Furthermore, on July 12, a business briefing session on the major revisions for existing dedicated travel agencies will be held. Subsequently, renewal reviews will be conducted for the current 215 dedicated travel agencies in July, and new applications for dedicated travel agencies will be promoted in August. In particular, for specialized and specialized companies that revitalize regional tourism, additional points will be awarded in the 'novelty of products' category to encourage various companies contributing to diversifying group tour products to enter the Chinese group tourism market.

The Chinese dedicated travel agency system has been operated since 1998 under the 'Memorandum of Understanding on Self-Financed Group Tourism of Chinese Citizens to Korea' signed between Korea and China, and the dedicated travel agency system must be operated to attract Chinese group tourists.

In April, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism imposed the first-ever 'business suspension' on a dedicated travel agency for reasons such as attracting Chinese group tourists at unreasonable prices or relying solely on shopping commissions as a basis for profit generation, and additionally canceled the designation of the same company for name lending.

Park Jong-taek, Director of the Tourism Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said, "With the implementation of these revised guidelines, we will strive to maintain a fair travel industry order and improve visitor satisfaction."

As of June this year, the number of Chinese visitors to Korea is estimated to have exceeded 2 million, surpassing the same period last year. Moreover, they currently account for 30% of all foreign tourists, showing a rapid recovery trend. The proportion of Chinese visitors entering with group tour visas has exceeded 10% of the total, approaching 12% in December 2019 before COVID-19.