{"id":489528,"date":"2026-02-19T06:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489528\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T06:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:18:08","slug":"how-did-chinas-guangzhou-tee-up-a-surge-in-south-korean-tourists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489528\/","title":{"rendered":"How did China\u2019s Guangzhou tee up a surge in South Korean tourists?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A surge in South Korean visitors wanting to play golf in Guangzhou<\/a>, fuelled by China\u2019s visa-free travel policy and the city\u2019s warm climate, is keeping Quan Yulan busier than ever at the travel agency where she has worked for 12 years.<\/p>\n

Compared with 2023, when international travel began recovering after the coronavirus pandemic, Korean bookings surged by more than 300 per cent last year, said Quan, who is of Korean descent, adding that the Guangzhou-based agency expected even stronger growth this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though Guangzhou is one of China\u2019s three major cities, Korean golfers used to be relatively rare here,\u201d she said. \u201cBut now I\u2019m happily busy every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

While roughly 90 per cent of golfers in Guangzhou are Chinese, South Korean visitors make up the overwhelming majority of foreign players, according to travel industry officials. Most of the golf-focused travel agencies in the city, including the one where Quan works, are run by or employ Chinese people of Korean descent to cater primarily to the Korean market.<\/p>\n

For years, Korean golf tourists favoured countries such as Japan, Thailand and Vietnam, said Lee Hee-hyun, CEO of Blooming Golf Tour, a travel agency based in Seoul. But that began to shift in 2024, when China introduced a 30-day visa-free policy for South Korean travellers.<\/p>\n

The impact has been significant. At Holiday Islands Golf Club \u2013 one of the most popular courses in Guangzhou among South Koreans \u2013 the number of Korean visitors rose 81 per cent year on year last year, while the number of Chinese grew by just 4.4 per cent.<\/p>\n

While Japan remained the top destination for Korean golfers, rising golf costs in Southeast Asia and safety concerns in countries like Thailand and Cambodia had made China the second most popular destination, Lee said, adding that Guangzhou accounted for more than 80 per cent of Blooming Golf Tour\u2019s China bookings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A surge in South Korean visitors wanting to play golf in Guangzhou, fuelled by China\u2019s visa-free travel policy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[247428,64,63,3686,247427,22225,247429,512,755,64609,26288,247430,152701,941,12440,5813,85,3725,17160,5611,9731],"class_list":{"0":"post-489528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-asia-pacific-economic-cooperation-summit","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-beijing","12":"tag-blooming-golf-tour","13":"tag-cambodia","14":"tag-centum-golf","15":"tag-china","16":"tag-golf","17":"tag-guangdong-province","18":"tag-guangzhou","19":"tag-holiday-islands-golf-club","20":"tag-incheon","21":"tag-japan","22":"tag-korean","23":"tag-south-korea","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-thailand","26":"tag-tourists","27":"tag-vietnam","28":"tag-xi-jinping"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}