The government has announced a plan to create some 40-thousand jobs by boosting the domestic leisure and tourism industries.

The announcement was made during a national employment strategy meeting chaired by President Lee Myung-bak and attended by the heads of six related ministries.

Under the plan, the government will seek to increase the number of foreign tourists to 12 million by 2014 from the current seven-point-eight million, and also hope to up the average vacation time for domestic tourists from nine to 14 days.

To that end, the government will designate and promote four promising and profitable tourist attractions. By 2014, it will also transform about three-thousand hotel and motel rooms in the capital region into budget accommodations. A streamlined reservation system for the rooms will also be devised.

In addition, the government will ease regulations on visa issuance for tourists from China and Southeast Asian nations.