Chinese tourism has experienced an unexpected boom, with travel numbers surging more than 60% following China’s visa-free policy implementation. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — Even as anti-China protests have intensified amid South Korea’s presidential impeachment crisis, Chinese tourism has experienced an unexpected boom, with travel numbers surging more than 60% following China’s visa-free policy implementation.
According to data obtained from the Ministry of Justice by lawmaker Park Eun-jung of the Rebuilding Korea Party, 647,901 South Koreans traveled to China between November 2023 and January 2025. This represents a 60.6% increase from the same period a year earlier when 403,470 people visited China, and nearly 25 times the number during the comparable period in 2022 when China maintained strict Covid-19 quarantine requirements.
The trend continued through the recent Lunar New Year holiday, with more than 138,000 travelers departing for China during the 10-day break, making it the second most popular destination after Japan, according to Incheon International Airport Corporation data.
Industry experts attribute this surge to China’s visa-free policy, which eliminated processing fees of approximately $75 per person, along with relatively affordable airfares and accommodations.
“We’re seeing a rapid increase in bookings for destinations popular among younger travelers, such as Shanghai and Qingdao, thanks to the elimination of visa requirements,” said a representative from Hana Tour, one of South Korea’s largest travel agencies. “We haven’t observed any impact from the growing anti-China sentiment yet.”
The disconnect between political tensions and travel patterns reflects a gap between politically driven anti-China sentiment and ordinary citizens’ behavior, experts say.
“The anti-China voices emerging from some protests are being overrepresented in the media,” said Seol Dong-hoon, a sociology professor at Jeonbuk National University. “We need to maintain a mature perspective and not be swayed by unverified extreme anti-China rhetoric.”
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
