Last month alone saw a twofold increase in the number of Vietnamese visitors to the Northeast Asian country compared with the same period last year.

Nguyen Thu Ha, public relations manager at KTO Vietnam, attributed the astounding increase to the relaxed visa requirements. Thousands of people come to the South Korean consulate to apply for visas, particularly five-year ones, Ha said.

To attract more Vietnamese tourists to South Korea, KTO Vietnam has collaborated with 14 major travel agencies in Vietnam to offer 60 new tours, with prices ranging from VND14 million to VND23 million, and have given gifts to 3,000 people traveling in the spring. These tours will take in new destinations in Busan, Daegu and Incheon.

Some local tour operators, such as Vietravel and TransViet, also operate tours to the hometown of Park Hang Seo, the popular South Korean coach of the Vietnam men's football team. Sales of these tours are on the rise even though they have only been launched recently, according to Ha.

The East Asian country on December 3, 2018 applied a new visa policy to Vietnamese passport holders, issuing five-year visas to them, including permanent residents and those with temporary residence books, in Vietnam's three major cities -- HCMC, Hanoi and Danang. Visa applicants do not have to prove their sources of income or financial status, but the South Korean consulate will consider some more essential factors to grant the visas.

Also, the new visa policy grants 10-year visas to skilled workers, such as doctors, professors, lawyers and directors of State-owned and private firms with capital exceeding VND100 billion, and to those who plan to study at four-year universities in South Korea.

Last year, some 450,000 Vietnamese tourists came to South Korea, rising almost 40% year-on-year.

SGT