SOUTH KOREA. The Korean Finance Ministry today announced plans to raise the duty free allowance for inbound travellers from US$600 per person to US$800. The news was reported earlier by Yonhap News Agency (original story here).
Crucially, the revised rules to be introduced call for a doubling of the alcohol limit for international arrivals from one litre to two.
Under current rules travellers aged 19 and over can import one litre of alcoholic beverage into the country up to the value of US$400. The alcohol allowance was last updated in 1993.
The updated rules are set to enter force before the Chuseok harvest holiday on 10-12 September.
Yonhap reported that the government is raising the threshold to take into account an increase in income levels per capita and to support the tourism industry as it recovers from the effects of COVID-19 pandemic.
