By Byun Duk-kun
Staff Reporter

The Korea National Tourism Organization (KNTO) will introduce a new kind of prepaid debit card to help foreign and Korean tourists in the nation during their visits here.

Korea Travel Card (KTC) will make its debut on Thursday, the first working day of the new year.

The card, sold in 100,000, 200,000, 300,000 and 500,000 won denominations or in any amount between 100,000 to 500,000 won depending on the users’ needs, will help the nation’s tourists pay for any type of expense during their travel from national park admission fees and transportation fares to long distances calls to foreign countries.

The KNTO has been working with Shinhan Bank and Shinhan Card to introduce the nation’s first travel card.

``The card will greatly help improve the nation’s travel environment because it may be used at any place where they accept credit cards,’’ Joo Sang-yong, a spokesman of the tourism bureau, said. There are more than 2 million businesses including hotels and restaurants subscribing to the credit card service.

The new travel card may be purchased at any Shinhan Bank branch office throughout the nation as well as those of Jeju Bank.

The card also offers special discount rates for foreign tourists. To mark the launch of the new travel card, the KNTO is also offering a 50 percent discount on tickets to the Bolshoi Circus at Olympic Park in Seoul from Jan. 6 through 25.

To find out more about the KTC, visit the Web site www.tour2korea.com.