ROK to offer hotel rebates to Chinese tourists  

明年起访韩中国游客入住观光酒店可免附加税

据韩国亚洲经济中文网报道，2014年1月1日起，入住韩国观光酒店的外国游客一年可享受10%的住宿折扣。韩国政府17日发布的《观光活跃对策》中提到了酒店附加税的返现制度，以及减轻观光地区业主的房产所得税负担等，引起业界乃至消费者的高度关注。[查看全文]

(ECNS) -- South Korea plans to reimburse foreign tourists for value-added tax payments on hotel bills to attract more visitors from China and Japan, a Chinese-language website said.

From Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2014, foreign tourists will get a 10-percent rebate on hotel spending. They now pay the same value-added tax as South Koreans, it said.

For example, on a hotel bill of 330,000 South Korean won ($2,287), foreign tourists will get back 30,000 won, once they hand in the invoice to the culture, sports and tourism ministry or national tax department.

Thanks to similar measures, visitors to Canada grew by 5.8 percent from 1992 to 2006, the ministry said.

It is part of a package of tourism promotion measures unveiled in South Korea, and the government aims to raise its annual tourism revenue to $24 billion by 2017 by attracting 16 million foreign visitors to the country.