The Philippines continues to see a surge in travel with South Korea, opening a new Korea Visa Application Center in Taguig City in order to handle the volume of requests.
According to the Philippine News Agency, the KVAC ‘will receive the applications for all visa types and release the issued visas and passports that have been reviewed by the Korean Embassy in Manila’.
The shift in services to the new center will ‘allow the embassy to focus on screening and simplifying the application process for Filipinos and the Korean community in Manila’.
The opening also coincides with a new Korean tourism campaign for this and next year entitled “Visit Korea Year”.
In 2019, some 2.54 million Korean and Filipino nationals traveled between the two nations. In the first six months of this year, this already recovered to 1 million, a 4.7-fold increase from 1H22. Expectations are for the travel to even surpass pre-pandemic levels.
Aside from domestic demand, Korean punters have been essential in the nation’s gross gaming revenue recovery post-pandemic, with particular focus on the high-end segment.
Korea only allows local gambling at one casino – Kangwon Land.
