South Korea Tourism Rises as Visa-Free Group Tours for Chinese Arrive

(INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA) South Korea began admitting Chinese group tourists without visas on September 29, 2025, setting off a sharp jump in arrivals that officials and businesses hope will carry through China’s National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival period and into next year. The temporary visa-free entry policy, which runs through June 30, 2026, allows Chinese nationals traveling in groups of at least three to come by air or sea and stay up to 15 days. It is the most sweeping step in years aimed at rebuilding the flow of visitors from China and lifting an economy that policymakers say has been under downward pressure.

The first visible wave arrived the morning the rule took effect, when The Dream cruise pulled into Incheon port from Tianjin with about 2,000 Chinese passengers booked on a five-day trip. Buses lined the terminal as tour leaders checked lists and waved placards, and duty-free staff prepared for a rush that retailers had been anticipating for weeks. The Dream cruise’s arrival was a signal event: a mass of Chinese group tourists stepping ashore on visa-free entry, with itineraries spanning Seoul shopping districts and coastal attractions packaged for a compressed stay.

The tourism sector moved quickly to meet them. Shilla Duty Free staged a welcome ceremony at its Seoul branch to steer the new arrivals toward post-pandemic shopping floors, while Lotte Duty Free, South Korea’s largest operator, reversed an earlier halt and resumed sales to Chinese bulk resellers known as daigou traders. The about-face on daigou, previously curtailed on profitability concerns, underscored how directly businesses are trying to capture spending from Chinese visitors in the coming months.

Airlines and travel platforms have also repositioned. Korean Air has partnered with Chinese travel giant Ctrip to bundle flights with new package deals designed to fit the 15-day cap and the group-tour rule, and Lotte Group has teamed up with a major Chinese social media platform to promote discounts on cosmetics favored by mainland shoppers. “This will be very positive for the industry. We will present popular tour packages to Chinese customers,” a manager at Hana Tour, one of South Korea’s largest travel agencies, said, outlining plans to push itineraries calibrated for short, tightly scheduled visits.

The policy is broad in its reach but narrow in its eligibility. It applies only to Chinese nationals who join specific group tours organized in China, with a minimum group size of three travelers, and it is valid for entries by both air and sea across South Korean ports, not just Jeju. Individual travelers from mainland China do not qualify, and the government has explicitly excluded Chinese nationals traveling to Korea from Singapore from the program. Authorities have told travelers to seek details from the Korean Embassy or Consulates in China; the Embassy in Beijing provides contacts and notices on its official site, and the Ministry of Justice has guided inquiries to official channels. For official consular information, travelers can consult the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in China via the Embassy’s official website.

The timing is deliberate. The launch overlaps China’s long “Golden Week” holiday period, when outbound travel demand spikes, and precedes the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit scheduled in Seoul at the end of October, when President Xi Jinping is expected to visit South Korea for the first time in 11 years. The government has framed the visa-free entry window as both a tourism measure and a signal of warmer ties with Beijing after a shift in South Korean leadership in June 2025 and a turn toward a more conciliatory approach to China.

Industry groups and local media have portrayed the change as a jolt to a sector still trying to fully regain momentum. South Korean outlets described how “businesses across South Korea are actively striving to attract Chinese tourists,” tallying promotions from airlines, retailers, and hotel chains eager for a sustained wave beyond the initial cruise calls and charter flights. The policy itself has been cast in those reports as a “new positive development for the recently stabilizing and improving China-South Korea relationship,” with the tourism corridor viewed as one of the fastest levers to pull after years of uneven flows.

On the ground, the most immediate effects are visible at border points and in shopping districts. The arrival of The Dream cruise set a template that tour operators say they will repeat at least through the winter travel season: group arrivals condensed into five- to seven-day stays that prioritize major retail zones, palace complexes, and coastal day trips that can be completed within the 15-day limit. Jeju Island remains a special case. It continues to be the only destination in South Korea where both individual and group tourists from mainland China can enter without visas outside of the group-tour policy, giving it a parallel stream that predates the national waiver and positions the island for added spillover if demand exceeds package capacity on the mainland.

Travel planners emphasize that the new visa-free entry route hinges on logistics set up in China. The rule requires that tours be assembled and operated by authorized organizers in China, not stitched together from third countries, which is why Chinese nationals traveling from Singapore are excluded. The group size minimum, set at three, is small enough to make family trips feasible but strict enough to channel entries through agency bookings, a structure that airlines and big retailers can target with block offers. Korean Air’s collaboration with Ctrip is tailored to that model, aiming to sell complete bundles that slot group members into the same flights and hotels with prebooked shopping events.

Duty-free operators are indulging in a new round of competition for sale volume from Chinese group tourists. Shilla’s welcome ceremony sought to kick-start foot traffic from the first ship’s passengers, while Lotte Duty Free’s decision to reopen to daigou marks a pragmatic pivot to chase high-ticket orders. Large stores are discounting imported cosmetics popular among mainland shoppers and staffing additional Mandarin-speaking guides. The expectation is that demand during National Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, and the winter holiday period will be strong enough to offset thinner margins, especially if visitation holds through spring.

Officials and analysts have linked the initiative to a broader effort to “inject significant momentum” into the economy, arguing that travel and retail receipts from China can help stabilize growth as manufacturing and exports fluctuate. The last time South Korea rolled out a visa waiver of comparable scope was in 2017, ahead of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, when authorities tested temporary relaxations to draw regional traffic. This time, the policy sits inside a broader diplomatic recalibration, with the APEC summit providing a near-term focal point for engagement and signaling.

The path into the country is straightforward under the temporary rules, but not universal. The visa-free entry window covers all South Korean ports and airports for qualifying groups, and travelers can remain for up to 15 days. Agencies say they are packaging five-day and seven-day trips most heavily at the start of the program because hotel capacity in Seoul and Incheon is tighter around the APEC period and because shorter tours fit better with factory and school schedules in northern China. The Dream cruise’s Incheon run from Tianjin—just over an hour’s flight from Beijing—was chosen precisely because it allows a shipload of passengers to disembark in a main port within the time limit and reboard with minimal friction, a model that could spread to other northern Chinese ports if carriers see consistent demand.

For Chinese families and small groups, the new rule reduces costs and paperwork associated with standard tourist visas, but the requirement to join approved tours means independent travelers still need to either choose Jeju or wait. Tour operators note that the three-person minimum allows a family of three or friends to travel together without needing to join a large bus tour, and they are advertising small-group packages that leave space for shopping days and free evenings. Retailers are aligning opening hours and promotion windows to the arrival times of groups, often bundling meal discounts and cosmetics vouchers into tour prices to capture spending early in a visit.

While the initial pictures come from Incheon and Seoul, regional destinations are preparing for add-on excursions. Rail links and domestic flights are being incorporated into itineraries to spread visitors to coastal cities that can be reached and toured within a day or two. Hoteliers in these areas are focusing on group rates and Mandarin-language services. The emphasis remains on staying within the 15-day cap, keeping schedules tight enough to ensure travelers can rejoin their group for outbound legs. Agencies say that keeping to the time limit is non-negotiable under the visa-free entry rule and that tour leaders have been trained to track attendance closely, with check-ins scheduled at each major stop.

The diplomatic backdrop has been part of the public conversation since the policy was unveiled. Chinese attendance at the APEC summit in Seoul, with President Xi expected to visit for the first time in 11 years, has been cited in media as a marker of the thaw in ties. The visa-free policy, framed as temporary and targeted, is intended to be read the same way—a practical step that benefits consumers and businesses on both sides without rewriting broader visa regimes. South Korean authorities and travel trade groups have encouraged visitors to rely on official channels for information, with consular notices pointing travelers back to embassies and consulates in China for questions about eligibility and group tour approvals.

Travel advisers have been quick to compile practical guidance. Outlets like VisaVerge.com have tracked the outlines of the policy window—group size, ports of entry, and the exclusion of Chinese nationals traveling from Singapore—while pointing readers to official consular lines for confirmations and updates. In practice, the core details are simple: Chinese group tourists who sign up for approved packages in China may enter for up to 15 days by air or sea between September 29, 2025 and June 30, 2026 without applying for a visa first. Jeju holds its separate, longstanding visa-free track for individual and group travelers from the mainland and remains a fallback for independent trips.

Retailers, airlines, and agencies will now test whether promotions tied to cosmetics, electronics, and dining—sweetened through social media tie-ups in China—translate into sustained spending through the winter. The initial surge around Golden Week will offer an early read on price sensitivity among Chinese travelers and the appetite for short-haul cruises like The Dream cruise’s Tianjin–Incheon run. If the flow holds, businesses expect to refine packages for the Lunar New Year period and adjust staffing to handle higher Mandarin-speaking traffic, while policymakers will watch for signs that spending is spreading from downtown Seoul to regional hubs.

For now, the faces at Incheon tell the story: tour leaders shepherding three- and five-person clusters through immigration lanes, families comparing shopping vouchers on shuttle buses, and duty-free staff greeting the first shiploads with banners and branded gifts. The visa-free entry window is limited, but its start has been unmistakable. South Korea is betting that making it easier for Chinese group tourists to come for 15 days will deliver a concrete boost to shops, hotels, and airlines—and, in the process, place another marker on a path to steadier relations with Beijing.