Incheon Airport resumes transit tours

Participants of the daily transit tour program pose for a photograph at Gyeongbokgung on Jan. 1. (IIAC)

Incheon Airport relaunched its daily transit tour program departing at the airport terminals on Jan. 1.

Transit tours are provided free of charge to passengers transferring to another country via Incheon Airport. Using their transfer wait time, passengers can tour major attractions on round-trip tour buses, led by professional guides.

Seven different tours are on offer, with four new courses added to the list.

The four are: "Past and Present," which visits Cheong Wa Dae and Tongin Market; "Tradition," which goes to the palace Gyeongbokgung and Insa-dong; "Peaceful Korea," which goes to Imjingak Pyeonghwa Nuri Park and the Bridge of Freedom; and "History," which visits the temple Jeondeungsa and Deokjinjin Fortress on the nearby island of Ganghwado, Incheon.

Details of the programs and reservation guidelines can be found at the Incheon Airport website.

Registration can be made upon arrival on a first-come, first-served basis, at the Information Desks at Terminal 1 and 2.

A Korea Electronic Travel Authorization or South Korean visa is required to participate.

Incheon Airport began its transit tour service in November 2004. Some 660,000 passengers had taken part until the program was halted in 2020 when the pandemic hit.

The number of daily passengers at Incheon Airport, which had fallen below 10,000 at the lowest point amid COVID-19, had rebounded to over 120,000 on Dec. 17 last year, 60 percent of the pre-pandemic figure of 200,000.

By Kim Hae-yeon(hykim@heraldcorp.com)