Chinese authorities have relented slightly in their ongoing tourism blacklist of South Korea.
In another sign of the frosty relationship thawing between Beijing and Seoul, the ban on tour groups to South Korea has been ‘partially’ lifted.
It comes more than eight months after China stopped all organised tours to the country in opposition to Korea’s deployment of the US made THAAD anti-missile defence system.
While a limited number of group tour packages will resume, it is not good news for Korean conglomerate Lotte.
Lotte is the company which gave away land on which the THAAD system now stands and as a result, has seen all its China based operations ground to a virtual standstill, costing the company millions in lost revenue.
According to local media reports in China, no tours will be allowed that include stays in Lotte owned hotels or visit Lotte duty free stores.
Authorities have imposed a number of other conditions too.
Korea-bound tour programs can only be sold by offline tour agencies and not specialist OTAs, and no low cost tours will be allowed.
For the time being, only offline tour agencies based in Beijing and eastern Shandong province can currently sell the tours, Korean news agency Yonhap said, citing unnamed sources.
Korean ministry of foreign affairs spokesman Noh Kyu-duk welcomed the developments.
"Human exchanges between South Korea and China are the basis for increasing friendship and the foundation for a sustained relationship. I expect bilateral human exchanges to recover fully and cooperative relations in other parts to also revive as soon as possible," he said.
