S. Korea to ease investment rules, entry procedures for tourists

(ATTN: CHANGES dateline; UPDATES with remarks from President Lee, more details)
By Shin Hae-in and Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL/PYEONGCHANG, Nov. 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korea announced Friday plans to ease
domestic investment rules and foreign entry procedures with the aim of tripling
inbound tourism by 2020.
Although the country's tourism sector has held up well despite the economic
crisis -- the number of overseas travelers increased 15 percent this year --
Culture Minister Yu In-chon said new strategies are needed to continue to boost
tourism and stimulate investment.
President Lee Myung-bak met with Yu and other culture ministry officials Friday
to discuss ways to come up with a plan to pursue those goals. They decided to
lower land lending prices by up to 30 percent for firms developing
tourism-oriented facilities and give permits for new duty-free shops in the
cities of Daegu and Yeosu, where international festivals are scheduled to be
held, the ministry said.
With the increase of foreign visitors coming to South Korea, the country marked a
US$320 million profit in the tourism industry for the January-September period.
The president noted the gain may have had more to do with a decrease in the
number of South Koreans going overseas because of the weak local currency.
"But I still believe it is very significant in that it can create momentum to
continue making profit," Lee told the meeting held in the eastern city of
PyeongChang, Gangwon Province.
Lee said the most urgent task for the country was to improve and develop its
cultural and tourist assets, as well as its safety measures, adding the recent
fire at a shooting range in Busan that took 11 lives, including seven Japanese
tourists, should not have occurred.
"Accidents happen in any country. It can happen in other countries, too, but we
cannot have accidents that occur only in underdeveloped countries," the president
said.
"2010 must be the year when we can say we are changing, not developing our
tourism industry," he added.
South Korea also wants to reform its "leisure culture" by encouraging government
officials to use up their yearly vacations, and will launch programs supporting
in-country tours for the disabled and low-income families.
For Chinese travelers, who represent a large proportion of foreign visitors to
Korea, the government plans to work on simplifying entry requirements and
ultimately set up a visa waiver program.
Korea's Jeju Island saw the number of Chinese tourists increase by more than five
times last year from 2005 after it set up a visa waiver program. Nearly 1.2
million people from China visited Korea overall last year.
South Korea will also build new youth hostels and sports leisure centers near its
four major rivers, in line with an ongoing multi-billion-dollar project to dredge
the rivers and create new parks along them, the culture ministry said.
Coinciding with its 2010-2012 "Visit Korea" campaign, the government will hold
seven large cultural events, including the Korean Wave Festival and the Global
Food and Tourism Festival.
Through such plans, South Korea hopes to increase its tourist revenue to US$30
billion annually from the current $9 billion, and increase the number of visitors
to 20 million from the current 7 million by 2020.
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bdk@yna.co.kr
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