(Yicai) Aug. 7 -- South Korea will temporarily lift visa requirements for Chinese tour groups, starting just before China’s week-long National Day break in October, as the East Asian country seeks to attract more visitors from China, which is its biggest source of tourists.

The new visa-free policy will be in effect from Sept. 29 this year to June 30 next year, the South Korean government said yesterday. China’s Golden Week holiday kicks off on Oct. 1. 

Within half an hour of the announcement, searches for Seoul as a travel destination surged 70 percent on Chinese online travel agency Qunar, Yicai learned from the Beijing-based platform. 

China unilaterally granted visa-free access to South Korean travelers in November last year, and since then there has been a sharp increase in the number of South Koreans visiting China. 

Videos about traveling in China have become popular on South Korean social media, which is a clear indication that simplifying visa procedures can play an important role in boosting people-to-people exchanges, Quan Xiaoxing, a researcher at think tank the Grandview Institution, told Yicai. 

China is South Korea's largest source of tourists, but the numbers have fluctuated a lot in recent years due to tensions over the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile system in 2017 and the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

Last year, thanks to the recovery of international travel following the pandemic, the number of Chinese tourists visiting South Korea more than doubled from 2023 to 4.6 million, accounting for 28 percent of all visitors, according to data released by state tourism promotion body, the Korea Tourism Organization. This puts China back in the top spot in terms of the number of tourists, ahead of Japan. However, the figure still falls far short of the 2016 peak of 8 million. 

Not only are there plenty of Chinese tourists visiting South Korea, but they are also big spenders. In 2023, the average Chinese tourist spent USD2,324 in the country, according to data from the Korea Tourism Organization. Estimates from the Bank of Korea suggest that for every one million additional Chinese tourists, South Korea's gross domestic product could expand by 0.08 percentage point.

In recent years, the South Korean government has made tourism a key part of its economic strategy. The country aims to attract 30 million foreign visitors by 2027 and generate USD30 billion in tourism revenue.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor