Photo by Korea.net / Korean Culture and Information Service Gold medal of the 2018 Winter Olympics in in Pyeongchang Share on Facebook Share on Twitter PyeongChang County in South Korea is hosting the Winter Olympics on February 2018. In connection to that, Filipinos are allowed to enter South Korea visa-free until April 2018. Visitors from Indonesia and Vietnam are also given the same privilege. The South Korean government hopes to boost the country’s tourism and hopefully improve relations with other countries like China. The 2018 Winter Olympics known as PyeongChang 2018 is a major international multi-sport event. It is scheduled to happen on Feb 9 to 25, 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Korea. Pyeongchang won as the host city receiving more votes that Munich, Germany and Annecy, France. This is the second Olympic Game held in South Korea. The first time was during the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. Pyeongchang is the third Asian city to host the Winter Games. First was Sapporo, Japan in 1972 and Nagano, Japan in 1998. Filipino’s to enter South Korea visa-free until April 2018 A report by Yonhap News confirms that visitors from the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia will be able to enter South Korea without a visa. This is allowed for as long as visitors enter through the Yangyang International Airport which is the closest to PyeongChang. This airport is around 158 km from Seoul. According to the report, the South Korean government hopes that with recent struggle due to security and political issues with China for example, this would somehow boost the country’s tourism and also improve its relationship with China. Finance minister Kim Dong-yeon said, “Tourism is an important industry that creates more jobs than other sectors, The Winter Olympics is about 100 days away and the improved relations with China will give fresh momentum to the local tourism industry.” Because of this, an extension of discounts for electronic visas for Chinese group tourists will be given until 2018. This means that visa fee for Chinese tourists with electronic passports will still be US $15. Facebook Comments