South Korea shifts to ASEAN market with e-visas
Monday, 24 Mar, 2017
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Amid a damaging diplomatic spat with China, South Korea has its eyes firmly on Southeast Asia to take up the tourism slack.
The Seoul government says it will begin issuing e-visas for Southeast Asian tourists from May.
It will also aggressively promote inbound travel from other Asian countries and hopes to spur more domestic travel too.
"Although China is virtually irreplaceable, we’re sure that there is potential to bring in more tourists (from other countries) through more aggressive marketing. We’ve been mulling such measures since the THAAD situation last year," a tourism official said.
South Korea’s THAAD anti missile system has irked China which has placed curbs on its citizens travelling to the country.
China made up nearly half of the 17 million inbound arrivals last year.
"We will tend to the needs of the local tourism industry, which is suffering from THAAD-related measures by China, and bring changes to the industry’s overdependence on China," said Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho.
Visa-free travel to holiday hotspot Jeju Island will also be offered for ASEAN travellers arriving via Incheon or Gimpo airports, the government said.
The government has also given the green light for tourism companies to take out emergency loans of up 125 billion won ($111.17 million) to stay afloat as the inbound China market dries up.
Overall, state subsidies of about 100 billion won will be spent on the tourism industry.
State-run Korea Development Bank says Korea could lose up to $20 billion in trade if the dispute with China drags on.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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