Expecting influx of tourists, S Korea short Chinese-speaking guides

South Korean tour agencies are urgently seeking to resolve a serious shortage of Chinese-speaking tour guides since its Ministry of Justice stated that South Korea would lower the requirements for independent Chinese tourists applying for visas, according to Yonhap, an official South Korean news agency.

The Ministry of Justice said in a scheme published last month that a one-year multiple entry visa will be expanded from high-income groups to a range of applicants, including teachers in high and primary schools, retirees receiving pensions and graduates from key colleges in addition to lawyers, doctors, professionals and persons who have been granted the right of permanent residence in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. South Korea will also grant double-entry visas for Chinese college students and families.

South Korea's tourism industry forecasts that the number of Chinese tourists is expected to increase significantly after the scheme is carried out. They said that the middle-income groups and college students might be the main groups of Chinese tourists to South Korea who will find it easier to get visas under the new policy.

The number of Chinese tourists visiting South Korea reached 825,000 in the first half of the year. South Korea's tourism industry expected that the number may be over 2 million, far beyond the expected.

However, South Korea is also expected to further improve the tourism infrastructure. In fact, with more tourists in South Korea, accommodation facilities in South Korea are relatively fewer than required. Korea National Tourism Organization (KNTO) said that Seoul’s hotels will be short 3,000 rooms next year and 15,000 by 2014.

In addition, the lack of Chinese speaking tour guides is also a serious problem for the South Korean tourist market. According to KNTO, only 151 guides got a Chinese tour guide license in recently three years and South Korea just has a total number of fewer than 800 Chinese-speaking tour guides now and two-thirds of them still have no official licenses.

By Zhao Chenyan, People's Daily Online