Travel in South Korea

Continued increases in outbound, inbound and domestic trips means continued healthy growth in travel

Travel abroad is becoming a popular activity for South Korean consumers to spend their leisure time on as ensuring a good work-leisure balance is becoming more important. Furthermore, the cost of travel is getting cheaper thanks to low-cost carriers and various types of alternative lodging such as Airbnb, meaning that travel abroad is no longer just something for people on higher incomes.

Online travel intermediaries performing strongly on the back of various types of offering

Online travel intermediaries are transforming into entities that offer many types of products across the whole travel industry, just like Airbnb is now providing activities products. While online travel intermediaries used to provide one type of specialised product only and offer flexible options to consumers, now they are evolving to provide all travel products at once, but still with the same levels of flexibility.

While local scheduled airlines are having difficulties, low-cost carriers continue to enjoy strong growth

As the most popular destinations for South Korean travellers are mostly nearby countries in the Asia Pacific region, the popularity of low-cost carriers is increasing. Low-cost carriers are actively extending their flight destinations to various new cities in the Asia Pacific region, as South Korean consumers are seeking new experiences in new destinations at affordable prices.

New package holiday products are being developed

Travel intermediaries are actively developing bespoke and themed package holiday products, as consumer needs when travelling can be highly personalised and focused on experiences. Hanatour introduced bespoke packages, built upon consumers’ requests, with various themed package products such as food tours and DJ night tours.

Travel will continue to see positive growth over the forecast period

Travel is expected to continue recording strong growth over the forecast period as the number of potential travellers among local consumers grows and the number of inbound travellers from neighbouring countries increases. In addition, the political situation after the South Korea-North Korea summit and the US-North Korea summit is easing and moving in the direction of peace, which means that more inbound tourists are expected over the forecast period.

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