▲ Jeju-bound arrivals to Seoul to enjoy visa-free travel in surrounding area under changed rules. Photo by Doug Letterman

Seoul announced on May 10 that international visitors to Jeju via Gimpo International Airport, Seoul, will not require a visa under new rules effective from June 1.

In order to boost tourism to the island, the Justice Ministry announced that visitors bound for Jeju with a connecting flight at Gimpo will be granted five days of visa-free travel in the surrounding area including the Seoul metropolitan area.

This expansion of the visa waiver is expected to be especially attractive to Chinese tourists.

Gimpo is now the seventh mainland airport to offer no-visa travel to Jeju since 2013 when Incheon and Gimhae joined the scheme. Daegu and Cheongju were among the other airports added last year.

Since 2013 when the waiver program was linked to mainland cities the number of Chinese visitors to Jeju traveling via local airports has surged by 50 percent. Yangyang International Airport, Gangwon Province, recorded a 470 percent jump to 59,000 last year, for example.

For the further convenience of foreign visitors to Korea, the ministry will also allow visa applications to be made online as opposed to in person at Korean embassies in foreign countries.

To address domestic concern around looser border controls, authorities announced they will step up border control and identity checking processes for inbound flights.