South Korea will loosen visa requirements and issue e-visas for Vietnamese visitors as the number of Vietnamese tourists to the Northeast Asian nation is growing significantly.

A Korean booth at a tourism fair in HCMC attracts a lot of local people

Le Thi Thu Trang, marketing director of the Korea Tourism Organization in Vietnam, said there have been 303,000 Vietnamese visiting Korea so far this year and the number may reach 330,000 at the end of this year, up by 90,000 over last year.

Korea will grant e-visas for buyers of incentive tours, allow more companies to carry out e-visa procedures and offer tourists a visa-free stay in Seoul for five days if they travel to Jeju island previously.

Trang told the Daily on November 15 that Vietnam ranks sixth among Korea’s biggest source markets. New policies are expected to be adopted next year to further expand the market.

In July, Korea accredited 35 travel companies in Vietnam, meaning Vietnamese tourists visiting Korea via these firms could get visas faster. Normally it takes eight days to apply for a visa, but guests of the 35 accredited firms need three days for incentive tours and five days for normal tours.

Last year, more than 240,000 Vietnamese tourists visited Korea, a year-on-year increase of 58%.

SGT