South Korea is considering a pilot program that would allow Chinese tour groups to enter without visas. The main goal of this measure is to stimulate tourism and further promote South Korea's economic growth. Find out what is already known about visa-free travel from China to South Korea

South Korea has announced that it may introduce a visa-free regime for Chinese tourist groups as early as this year. The main goal of simplifying migration legislation is to develop tourism in the country.

South Korea plans to consider a pilot program that will allow Chinese tourist groups to enter without visas initially as early as this year.

How many tourists does South Korea plan to attract in 2025?

In 2024, South Korea planned to attract 20 million visitors, however, based on data from the Korea Tourism Organization, the number of visitors for the period from January to October 2025 was 13.74 million.

For 2025, the country's authorities have set a goal of attracting 18 million visitors.

While this year’s target is lower than last year, it still surpasses the record 17.5 million registered tourists who arrived in Korea in 2019, before the COVID-19 lockdown.

Who did South Korea welcome in 2024?

In the first half of last year, the country opened its doors to a total of 7.7 million foreign tourists, a 74 percent increase over the same period in 2023.

The statistics for the first six months of this year reached 91 percent of those registered for the same period in 2019.

The majority of visitors to South Korea in the first six months of this year were from:

- China – 2.2 million visitors

- Japan – 1.4 million

- Taiwan – 680,000 million

- United States of America – 640,000 million.

In addition, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) previously said it expects visitors to contribute 96.2 trillion won ($69.5 billion) to South Korea’s economy in 2024, up 13.6% from last year.

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Visa-free travel to China

In addition to South Korea, China also allows citizens of many countries to enter without a visa.

In 2024, China actively worked to attract tourists by simplifying its immigration policy.

Citizens of the following 32 countries are already eligible for visa-free travel to China:

Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Cyprus, Denmark, Georgia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Spain and Switzerland.

Starting from November 30, 2024, China will allow visa-free entry to representatives of 9 more countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Estonia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Malta, Latvia and Japan.

With this decision, the total number of countries that have been granted visa-free travel has increased to 41 countries.

The inclusion of Japan in the visa-free travel list is expected to further strengthen ties between the two countries.

Visa-free travel conditions to China in our previous article.

As a reminder, South Korea has announced that it will extend the K-ETA exemption for citizens of 67 countries until the end of December 2025. We have already told you how the simplification of migration legislation will affect travelers whose representatives are exempt from the K-ETA and about the current entry rules.

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Ihor Usyk - head of Visit World's legal department

To arrange a safe move to South Korea, I advise you to contact a specialist. My colleagues, qualified specialists with legal education, will help you avoid unpleasant situations when traveling abroad.

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