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Andrew Ronquillo - The Philippine Star
February 26, 2026 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos’ visa applications for South Korea have spiked by up to 17 percent during the traditionally slow visiting seasons of January and February.
The unusual surge prompted South Korean Ambassador Lee Sang-hwa to ask the embassy’s consular section for the reasons specified in the visa applications.
The top reason: the applicants are attending K-pop superstars BTS’ full-group comeback concert on March 21, after a two-year break when the band members underwent mandatory military training.
While the concert will be broadcast live by Netflix to 190 countries, the outdoor concert is free, although attendance needs reservation for tickets.
It will be staged a day after the band drops its fifth studio album, “Arirang,” and will precede its world tour that kicks off in Seoul in April.
The first two months of the year usually see only about 13,000 Filipinos visiting South Korea, Lee told The STAR on Feb. 24 during a media meeting at the ambassador’s residence in Makati.
This time, for February alone, the embassy is expecting the number to hit 20,000, Lee said.
Last year, over 600,000 Filipinos visited South Korea, accounting for the largest arrivals in that country from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Korean entertainers in music, movies and television have conquered Filipino hearts. Tickets to the Manila concerts of K-pop bands are quickly sold out. Filipino fans pay thousands of pesos for simple “meet-and-greet” events with visiting K-drama stars.
The embassy is promoting two-way cultural exchanges, particularly as the Philippines and South Korea mark 77 years of diplomatic relations on March 3.
On April 18 and 19, the two countries are collaborating in staging the ASEAN-Korea music festival for the first time in the Philippines, at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
Performing at the free concert, from the Philippines, are Ben&Ben, TJ Monterde, Cup of Joe and boyband Hori7on. There will also be performers from all the other ASEAN member-states except new member Timor-Leste, Lee said.
Filipinos are also wooing Korean audiences. Lee noted that Seoul-based Filipina Gwyn Dorado made history by becoming the first foreigner to place second in Korean TV channel JTBC’s competition “Sing Again 4” with an all-Korean song.
“Sing Again 4” aired from October to January, during which Dorado impressed the South Korean judges and audience with her renditions of Korean songs.
“At just 21, she is a bona fide superstar in Korea,” Lee noted. “I think she perfectly embodies our people-to-people ties: a homegrown talent who conquered the Korean stage with her voice and her fluency in Korean. Amazing. She has certainly conquered Korean hearts.”
Next month, Dorado will return to the Philippines to be among the judges at the K-pop dance cover contest “Everyone’s KPOP: Battle of the Champions” on March 4, to be held at the Metropolitan Theater in Manila.
The contest, organized by the Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines in partnership with the Philippines’ National Commission for Culture and the Arts, will also have as judges K-pop choreographers Ciel Oh and Lia Kim.
“I could speak at length about economic figures and defense cooperation, but statistics, I believe, only tell half the story,” Ambassador Lee said. “What truly brings our nations closer are our people. Our shared history is, ultimately, a story of human connection.”
Dive tourism
Meanwhile, the Philippines positioned itself as a leader in dive tourism, marine conservation and scientific exploration by showcasing eight diving destinations in the country at the 2026 Paris Dive Show.
The Philippine delegation captured the attention of the European dive market by featuring the country’s top diving destinations in a 90-square-meter Philippine Pavilion with immersive underwater photography panels.
