South Korea to allow entry of unvaccinated travellers

Visitors who are not vaccinated against Covid-19 will be able to enter South Korea without undergoing quarantine as long as they present two negative tests carried out within three of arrival.

South Korea.- The Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has announced that from tomorrow (June 8), visitors will be able to enter South Korea without Covid-19 vaccination and without undergoing quarantine. The only requirement will be to present two negative Covid-19 tests taken within three days of arrival.

If one of the two tests carried out after arrival is South Korea is positive, a visitor will have to undergo a seven-day quarantine. All travellers, vaccinated or not, must still show a negative Covid-19 test before boarding a flight.

South Korea has already resumed issuing short-term tourist entry for individual tourists and tour groups. Citizens of most countries can stay in South Korea for up to 90 days for tourism, business trips, medical treatment, visiting relatives, and conference attendance.

The measures are subject to revision in the event of changes in the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the news was well-received by the country’s casinos as 16 of the 17 casinos in South Korea only allow foreign players to enter.

In January, Jeju island was considering whether it would be possible to allow its land-based casinos to provide remote gambling to foreign players as a way to help the industry recover. However, authorities ruled out the possibility of allowing South Korean nationals to gamble as they received many opinions against the idea. 

Due to countermeasures and travel restrictions, the number of arrivals in South Korea was 212,767 in 2020 and 48,278 in 2021, down 87.7 per cent and 77.3 per cent from 2019.