JAKARTA - South Korea’s Justice Ministry said on July 1 it will extend a waiver of the $15 visa application fee for group tourists from Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam until December 31, 2026.
The measure had been scheduled to expire at the end of June, but the ministry said it chose to keep the exemption in place for the rest of the year to support group travel. The ministry said demand for group tourist visas has been rising, especially from China and Southeast Asia, and described the extension as a way to “continue revitalizing group tourism.”
The ministry’s figures point to that rebound. More than 790,000 tourists entered Korea on group tourist visas in 2025, up 39 percent from a year earlier. Group tourists from China rose 48 percent over the same period, visitors from Vietnam increased 5 percent, and Indian group arrivals more than doubled, from 573 in 2024 to 1,120 in 2025.
Officials also highlighted compliance as a reason to keep the programme in place. The share of group tourists who left their designated tours and became undocumented residents fell to 0.07 percent in 2025, down from 0.19 percent a year earlier.
The July 1 extension sits inside a broader tourism recovery. Reuters reported in April that South Korea recorded 2.06 million foreign arrivals in March 2026, a monthly record, and 4.76 million visitors in the first quarter, also a record for that period. Chinese travellers led the surge with 1.45 million arrivals in the quarter.
China remains central to South Korea’s regional tourism strategy. Reuters reported that South Korea began a visa-free pilot for Chinese tourist groups on September 29, 2025, allowing groups of three or more to stay for up to 15 days through June 2026. The government first announced that policy in March.
The visa fee waiver comes amid broader efforts to boost travel between South Korea and Asia. On June 4, South Korea and China agreed to their first expansion of bilateral flight rights in seven years, increasing weekly passenger services to 664 from 608 and cargo services to 68 from 54.
