Hawai'i tourism officials hope the South Korean boom is about to begin.

Tourists from South Korea can start arriving in the U.S. under the new visa-waiver program Nov. 17, state and federal officials announced Friday. The date is about two months earlier than expected.

Tourism liaison Marsha Wienert predicted the number of tourists who come from South Korea to Hawai'i will double to 80,000 in the first year of the program and double again in 2010 to 160,000. The distance between Hawai'i and Seoul is about the same as between Hawai'i and Atlanta.

At the peak before the 1990s Asian economic collapse, South Korea sent up to 122,000 tourists a year to Hawai'i.

Many Koreans have relatives in Hawai'i, along with deep cultural ties to Hawai'i's large Korean-American communities.

All a South Korean traveler will have to do is carry a new e-passport, which is bar-coded for identification, and then register for travel authorization online.

Wienert said the South Korea visa-free program is the most positive news Hawai'i tourism officials have had in some time.

"It is a country that has close ties with Hawai'i, that we partnered with for years on many different things, and this now allows them to travel freely to the Islands," Wienert said.

An information release from the U.S. Embassy in Seoul advised South Korean citizens that all they will have to do to travel to the U.S. beginning Nov. 17 is go online, sign up, receive clearance from the Electronic System for Travel Authorization and then carry an e-passport.

South Koreans may be traveling for business or pleasure, but must carry a roundtrip ticket or a ticket that takes them on to another country, and may not spend more than 90 days in the U.S.

People seeking permanent residence or planning to seek student visas may not use the visa-waiver program. Passengers who have been refused a visa in the past or been deported from the U.S. still must go through the process of obtaining a visa.

President Bush decided two weeks ago to lift visa requirements for South Korean tourists. British, Japanese and nationals of several other countries are already eligible to travel to the U.S. without visas.

Tourism officials have welcomed the news following the collapse of ATA and Aloha airlines and the drop in tourism from the U.S. Mainland, Japan and most other countries.

The Hawai'i Tourism Authority has stepped up marketing efforts in South Korea and now has a Korean-language Web site through Hawai'i Tourism Korea.

Officials have been working on airfare and hotel package deals and keeping South Korean travel agents informed about what O'ahu and other islands have to offer. O'ahu is expected to get the most benefit early on.

But Wienert said she expects more South Koreans to visit the Neighbor Islands over the next few years.

Korean Air flies nonstop from Seoul to Honolulu, and has shown interest in expanding its Hawai'i service, according to tourism officials. They expect other airlines to seek more flights as demand increases.

Still, South Korea represents a relatively small share of Hawai'i's 7 million tourists annually. Japanese tourists last year totaled 1.3 million, and visitors from other U.S. states hit just more than 5 million.

Bush also lifted visa requirements for citizens of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but Wienert said those countries are too far away for Hawai'i to attract many of their residents.