SEOUL, May 9 (Korea Bizwire) — Travel agencies are frustrated over low reservation rates despite soaring demand for foreign travel, and they are blaming their difficulties on what they say are excessive measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 in South Korea. Currently, foreign travel requires a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test prior to departure, [...]
SEOUL, April 27 (Korea Bizwire) — About a half of foreigners have the intention to travel to South Korea within the next three years, a survey showed Tuesday. The Korea Tourism Organization conducted a survey twice last year of about 30,000 foreigners over 15 years of age residing in 21 countries. Among them, 19.4 percent [...]
SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) — As flight travel is making a comeback, more people are choosing to fly longer distances rather than visiting close, neighboring countries for travel. Major online shopping malls Gmarket and Auction studied big data related to overseas travel package sales in the last 30 days (March 11 to April 10), [...]
SEOUL, March 28 (Korea Bizwire) — With quarantine restrictions being lifted for incoming vaccinated travelers to South Korea, more people are gaining interest in books about foreign travel. Kyobo Bookstore reported a 28.5 percent sales increase for books about traveling overseas between February 25 and March 24. The government lifted quarantine restrictions on incoming travelers [...]
SEOUL, March 21 (Korea Bizwire) — A majority of South Koreans in their 20s and 30s are interested in buying eco-friendly travel packages even if they are more costly. Accommodation booking app Good Choice conducted a survey of 700 customers in their 20s and 30s, 45.3 percent of whom were willing to purchase eco-friendly packages even [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Single-person travel is becoming increasingly popular. According to the Korea Tourism Organization, an analysis of BC Card Co.’s credit card transaction data showed that travel consumption by single-person households accounted for 14.6 percent of all tourism-related consumption in the country last year, up by 5.5 percentage points from the [...]
DAEJEON, Feb. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL) on Wednesday unveiled a virtual reality (VR) video designed to make viewers feel like they are driving trains for themselves, through its YouTube channel. The new video is a follow-up to the online travel content that the train service operator released last year. The new [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of travel agencies in South Korea has declined nearly 6 percent over the past two years in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, industry data showed Tuesday. There were 21,231 tour agencies in Asia’s fourth-largest economy as of end-September, down 6.1 percent from two years earlier, according [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Preference for traveling to less crowded or outdoor destinations has grown this year in South Korea amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a report showed Wednesday. The Korea Culture & Tourism Institute (KCT) compared two surveys — one conducted on 2,061 people from April to May last year and the [...]
SEOUL, May 19 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s six major travel agencies cut some 15 percent of their workforce over the past year as travel demand has taken a massive hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Wednesday. At the end of March, six listed travel firms had a total of 4,268 employees, down 15.4 [...]