Tickets for Hotels and Resorts Popular Thanks to Increasing Demand for ‘Hocance’

Jeju International Airport is crowded with inbound travelers on the traditional Chuseok autumn harvest holiday on Oct. 2, 2020. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Oct. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, tickets for staying at hotels or resorts are enjoying rising popularity on home shopping channels.

The surge in demand for such tickets reflects the increasing demand for the “hocance,” a new Korean word referring to the culture of spending one’s vacation in a hotel.

Hocance allows people who cannot go abroad due to the spread of the COVID-19 to enjoy a unique trip-like feeling.

Lotte Home Shopping, for example, sold out more than 10,000 lodging tickets for the Ramada by Wyndham Hamdeok Hotel simply through two rounds of broadcasts.

Prior to this, as many as 30,000 lodging tickets for the Fairfield by Marriott in Seoul and Busan were sold out through five rounds of broadcasts.

Hyundai Home Shopping Network also chalked up sales of 800 million won (US$684,345) and 1 billion won through promotions for the ‘Yongpyeong Resort Summer Package’ and ‘Alpensia Five Star Hotel Package.’

SK Stoa, which is a combination of home shopping and an online mall, sold a Jeju Island tour package for two nights and three days through TV broadcasts from July. This promotion generated more than 150 percent greater sales than originally expected.

Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)