Seoul eases visa rules for Chinese

By Park Si-soo

Staff reporter

The government will drastically ease visa rules for Chinese tourists from Aug. 1 to attract more visitors from the world’s most populous nation, the Ministry of Justice said Tuesday.

The government will expand the scope of those who will be eligible for multiple-entry visas to employees of the top 500 Chinese companies, teachers, retirees with pension income, holders of various professional licenses and graduates of prestigious universities. They will be able to freely enter Korea during the period specified by the visa.

The announcement came one month after Japan initiated a package of “stunning” measures designed to appeal to Chinese people with proven spending power.

Experts say this is a clear sign that the two major Asian economies are gearing up efforts to take a bigger portion of tourism from the economically flourishing state with a population of some 1.2 billion.

“This is to increase the annual number of Chinese travelers to Korea to 3 million by 2012 from the current 1.3 million,” Seok Dong-hyeon, commissioner of the Korea Immigration Service (KIS), told reporters. “With our neighboring countries including Japan aggressively easing visa rules to appeal to Chinese tourists, our measures will set a new precedent.”

The commissioner said middle class Chinese citizens are the chief beneficiary of the new rules.

The KIS estimates the number of China’s middle class at some 50 million — slightly more than the entire Korea population of 49.7 million as of 2009.

These middle class Chinese citizens will be entitled to a multiple-entry visa, which is available for up to three years.

The multiple entry visa is currently given to only a limited number of elite and upscale Chinese people.

The ministry will also introduce a double-entry visa for Chinese people travelling in and out of a third country via Korea.

For globe-trotting young backpackers, submitting a certificate of registration with China’s top-notch universities will be enough to receive the travel visa, it said.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) said in 2009 alone, nearly 48 million Chinese citizens went overseas, projecting that by 2020, China will be fourth after Germany, Japan and the United States in the number of outbound tourists.

A growing number of Chinese travelers to Korea and their proven spending power led to the government taking the unprecedented action.

In 2006, 896,969 Chinese travelers visited the country, accounting for 26.3 percent of all foreign visitors, according to the ministry. Last year, 1.34 million Chinese spent their vacations here. About 820,000 Chinese people have travelled to the country during the first half of the year.

By age, those in their 20-30s take up almost half of Chinese travelers, followed by forty-somethings with 730,000, the ministry said.

A market research company Nielsen Korea found one Chinese tourist spends an average of $2,203 in Korea, which is 32 percent higher than the average expenditure of foreign tourists of $1,670.

Expectations are high but there is still a long way to go, critics say. Last year, Chinese ranked Korea last among ten travel destinations in a survey assessing the level of satisfaction of foreign travelers, according to the Korea Tourism organization (KTO).

Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Europe, Malaysia, Japan, Macau, Thailand and Vietnam all placed ahead of Korea. Worse, many respondents said they would not recommend Korea to their peers.

They cited the lack of Chinese-language signs, high costs, and heavy traffic as the main inconveniences.

Only 28 out of 60 restaurants in Seoul designated by the KTO as “foreigner-specific” offer Chinese-language menus. Seoul is one of the top tourist attractions among foreigners.

중국인 비자발급 완화

법무부는 화요일 중국인 관광객을 늘이기 위해 8월부터 비자발급 규정을 완화할 것이라고 밝혔다.

복수 입국 비자를 신청할 수 있는 자격 조건이 완화되어 500 대 중국 기업 취업자, 교수, 연금을 받는 퇴직자, 전문 면허 소지자 또는 명문 대학 졸업생들에 이 비자를 내주기로 했다. 이들은 비자에 제시된 기간 동안 자유롭게 한국에 입국 할 수 있게 된다.

이는 일본이 씀씀이가 큰 중국 관광객들을 끌기 위해 “획기적인” 방안을 만들어 낸 지 한 달 만에 나왔다.

전문가들은 한국과 일본이 경제적으로 크게 성장하고 있는 인구 12억 중국을 상대로 한 관광업을 확대하기 위한 분명한 조짐이라고 말하고 있다.