Korea tightens regulations on large Chinese tour groups

A group of Chinese tourists leave Gangjeong port on Jeju island and head to the bus station for a city tour on June 26. Yonhap

Author: Lee Hae-rin

Korea will introduce stricter regulations aimed at eliminating large Chinese group tours, also known as “dumping tours” due to low prices, which have been identified as the main cause of tourists’ complaints, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said on Sunday.

Such tours refer to practices in which travel agencies attract tourists with unreasonably low prices and make profits, including non-stop shopping, earning commissions from sellers along the way.

The ministry has revised guidelines for travel agencies tasked with attracting Chinese group tourists to take administrative action against violators from Monday, aimed at eliminating cheaper shopping tours.

In particular, the ministry will take action against the so-called “no-fee tours”, in which travel agencies do not receive expenses from local Chinese companies, and against those who encourage group tourists to make purchases and do not pay the reasonable costs of tours to translators.

The Ministry will review and audit the profit structures reported by travel agencies to see whether they rely excessively on trade fees to make a profit.

Additionally, the Korea Association of Travel Agencies, the Korea Duty-Free Shop Association and duty-free shops will cooperate with the ministry to check whether travel agencies are complying with regulations on shopping websites.

This year, the number of Chinese visitors to Korea is estimated to have surpassed last year’s figure of 2 million between January and June alone. This number represents 30 percent of all tourists arriving in Korea during this period.

In particular, the percentage of Chinese tourists entering the country on group visas exceeded 10% and approached 12%, which is a level comparable to pre-pandemic data from 2019.

The ministry said the regulations on budget tours are aimed at addressing complaints from tourists about, among other things, forced purchasing practices, especially given the rapid recovery in inbound tourism from China.

Earlier this year, the ministry for the first time suspended the activities of travel agencies that attracted Chinese group tourists with unreasonably low prices or based their profit solely on purchase fees.