Korean city backs
visa waiversResidents of Incheon add
30,000 signatures to a petition
to ease U.S. travel restrictions
A group that has been petitioning since September to ease visa requirements for Korean visitors to Hawaii has gathered more than 40,000 signatures of support -- 30,000 of which are from residents in Honolulu's Korean sister city.
Delegates from Incheon, South Korea -- the nation's third-largest city -- presented the Hawaii Visa Waiver Project Committee with the names in support of a visa exception earlier this week.
The signatures were added to those the committee had already collected locally as part of its campaign aimed at adding Korea to the U.S. Visa Waiver Program or, at least, permitting Koreans to travel to the islands without visas.
Incheon's mayor heard about the committee's efforts when he visited the islands earlier this year, and decided to help by gaining support in his hometown for the waiver campaign, said committee Secretary General Ki Youb Kang.
The committee's members, who include a number of travel industry officials, cite declining Korean visitor levels since the late 1990s as their prime motive for pushing a visa exception.
Before 1997, 100,000 Koreans on average would visit the islands annually. Since, Korean visitor numbers have dropped almost in half, according to the committee.
The Korean National Tourism Organization reports that the number of Koreans visiting Guam since the passage of a visa waiver program there has skyrocketed to 115,000 in 2002 from 15,000 in 1998.
Gov. Linda Lingle, who met with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge last week to ask for visa exceptions, has supported the committee's efforts.
But she has also warned the committee that any changes will be hard-won and slow, given increased security requirements for travelers entering the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
But the committee's members complain that visitors from Japan and Singapore -- the only Asian countries of the 27 nations enrolled in the Visa Waiver Program -- are getting special treatment.
"There's a feeling of resentment about that because we've been allies with the United States for 50 years, and among the Asian countries, Korea has just been a staunch ally," said Jackie Young, a member of the committee and former vice speaker of the state House. "We see it as economic, of course, and also a matter of fairness. It's disconcerting and disappointing. We should be looked upon more favorably because we do have this good relationship."
Business or vacation travelers from countries under the waiver program need only a valid passport to enter the United States for 90 days or less.
In contrast, Koreans between 17 and 54 who are planning to vacation in the United States must pass an interview at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul for their visa to be approved.
The difficulty of this process lies in not only getting through the interview, but getting to it, Young said.
"Many of them have just given up and gone to Guam," she said. "It's much easier."
Kang said he has heard stories from Korean tourists who say they were forced to drive hours to the U.S. Embassy in Seoul or stay in a hotel overnight just to get a visa for their vacation.
This is not the first time that Hawaii residents have pushed to get Korea into the Visa Waiver Program.
In 1996, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, along with Korean travel agencies in Hawaii, lobbied for its passage by Congress.