SEOUL, July 26 (Korea Bizwire) — A South Korean travel agency is rolling out so-called ‘COVID-19 vaccine tours.’ Healing Vacation, a tour agency specializing in the Americas, introduced a travel package last Friday that includes receiving a Pfizer Inc.’s or Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine in the United States. With this package, travellers can get one [...]
SEOUL, June 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Modetour Network Inc., South Korea’s second-largest travel service provider, has offered a voluntary retirement program for the first time in the company’s history after suffering from the prolonged novel coronavirus pandemic, industry insiders said Sunday. All of the travel agency’s 990 employees will be eligible to apply for the [...]
SEOUL, June 22 (Korea Bizwire) — Travel agency Interpark Tour said Monday the launch of a beta service for its artificial intelligence (AI)-based free tour platform. Once users select the cities and schedules they want, an AI automatically recommends flights, accommodations, itineraries, and other detailed travel information. The service enables users to instantly check the [...]
SEJONG, Nov. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s corporate watchdog said Tuesday that it had foreign online travel agencies revise their unfair refund policies. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said it has looked into provisions and clauses of four firms — Agoda, Booking.com, Hotels.com and Expedia — and discovered unfair terms that restrict the cancellation [...]
SEJONG, Feb. 2 (Korea Bizwire) – Commission fees given by duty-free shops to travel agencies increased sharply to reach nearly 1 trillion won (US$872.4 million) last year on heated competition to attract more foreign travelers, customs data showed Thursday. Twenty-two local duty-free operators paid a combined 967.2 billion won to tourist agencies and guides in [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – The Chinese government has been moving to tighten regulations on cheap tour packages, raising concerns among South Korean businesses relying on the biggest source of travel income, industry officials said Tuesday. Earlier this month, the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) said it will closely look into “irrationally” cheap travel [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Korea Bizwire) – Wednesday’s parliamentary audit brought to light the revelation that Korean travel agencies are offering holiday packages to countries with government-designated travel alerts, with some calling for government intervention to safeguard citizens. There are currently four levels of travel alerts issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Purple (areas needing [...]
SEOUL, May 23 (Korea Bizwire) – With an increasing number of Korean travelers preferring to vacation independently, travel agencies are broadening their offerings to adapt to the change in demand. As independent travellers are more prone to various forms of accidents, agencies are offering travel deals that are freer in terms of scheduling, but still [...]