[Young journalist Hansae Jung] As the South Korean government has decided to implement a temporary visa-free policy for Chinese group tourists, interest in travelling to Korea is rising ahead of China’s major Golden Week holiday in October.

According to reports from Chinese media outlets such as The Paper, searches for Seoul on the Chinese online travel platform Ctrip increased by 120% within just 30 minutes after the South Korean government announced its visa-free policy the previous afternoon.

On another travel platform, Tongcheng Travel, at 3 p.m. the previous day, searches for group tour packages to Korea during China’s longest holiday period, the National Day holiday (October 1–8), increased by more than 60%.

The number of Chinese tourists visiting Korea, which plummeted during the COVID-19 period, has been steadily recovering.

According to the online edition of China National Radio, Yangguangwang, the number of Chinese tourists traveling to Korea, which had reached 8 million in 2016, dropped to around 4 million in 2017. It then recovered to about 6 million in 2019, before falling again during the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching 2.02 million in 2023 and 4.6 million in 2024, showing signs of recovery.

China’s tourism industry noted that the timing of the South Korean government’s visa-free policy for Chinese group tourists was set just before the National Day holiday.

The head of a research institute under Tongcheng Travel said, “With about half of the summer travel season already over, travel agencies are preparing for the National Day holiday market,” adding, “By adjusting its visa policy toward China at this time and introducing a temporary visa-free program for Chinese tourists, Korea has sent a signal that it intends to secure the Chinese tourist market in advance.”

Ctrip’s Travel Research Institute predicted, “After simplifying its visa procedures, Korea will attract more middle-aged and family tourists, and demand for group tours from third-tier (mid-sized) and fourth-tier (small) cities will be unleashed. The return of Chinese group tourists will directly drive the recovery of Korea’s retail, duty-free, and restaurant industries, while also promoting people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.”

However, some also predict that the impact will be limited, since while middle-aged Chinese tourists tend to prefer group tours, the visa-free measure does not apply to individual travelers who now make up the majority of Chinese visitors to Korea.

Zhou Weihong, deputy general manager of China Spring Tour, noted, “Jeju Island in Korea, a popular destination for Chinese independent travelers, was already visa-free, and while group tours focus on Seoul and Busan, the variety of group tour packages is not particularly large compared to neighboring destinations. The introduction of this policy is therefore unlikely to have a major impact.”

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