The Korean Tourism Organisation (KTO) in Vietnam announced a policy loosening visa requirements for Vietnamese tourists at a seminar on visa policies and travel in the Republic of Korea on October 29, in Hanoi.
The policy aims to create opportunities for travel agencies to bring Vietnamese tourists to the land of kimchi.
Accordingly, previous visa fees of USD30 will be reduced to USD20 as of September 1. In addition, to enter the RoK, Vietnamese tourists had to prove income of USD5,000 in their account, but now they only need certificates of gold or platinum credit card of Shinhan Bank Vietnam. RoK will also apply online visa policy for professors and researchers.
In the first nine months this year, Vietnamese tourist arrivals to RoK reached more than 99,700. Disregarding the number of people entering to work, this figure showed a year-on-year 20 percent rise./.