'With Corona' Approaching... Travel Industry Gets Busy

A New Leap Forward... CI Change and App Revamp
Rising Expectations for Resuming Dealership Sales

Travelers bustling at Gimpo Airport.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dong-hyun] The representative beneficiary industries of the ‘phased daily recovery (With Corona)’ quarantine policy to be implemented next month are ‘tourism’ and ‘travel.’ The pent-up desire for ‘revenge consumption’ is expected to be unleashed all at once, leading to a recovery of performance to pre-COVID-19 levels in a short period. Accordingly, the travel industry is busy preparing to welcome group tourists after a long time by reorganizing their organizations and preparing new types of travel products.

Hana Tour is currently pouring its core capabilities into announcing the company’s leap forward. They plan to hold a company-wide campaign on the day With Corona is implemented. Hana Tour will reveal the results of innovations they have been contemplating while enduring the ordeal of COVID-19. As part of this, Hana Tour recently changed its corporate image (CI) for the first time in 11 years and revamped its website and application (app). Especially for the app, unlike in the past when only simple travel products were sold, it has been upgraded so that travelers can manage various schedules themselves and obtain diverse travel information. Travel products have also been changed significantly to eliminate additional costs incurred locally and to give a ‘free travel’ feel rather than a package tour.

Hana Tour recently conducted a survey on which overseas destinations would be preferred after the transition to With Corona. The region with the largest share was Guam, accounting for 26%. According to Hana Tour’s reservation status as of the 20th, about 1,200 people have booked Guam travel products through the end of the year. A Hana Tour official said, "In just this month, as the With Corona atmosphere intensified, Guam reservations exceeded 1,000," adding, "Reservations are rapidly increasing for regions like Guam where vaccinated individuals can enter immediately without quarantine by presenting only a PCR negative certificate."

Modetour is resuming agency sales, which had been almost suspended. During the COVID-19 situation, only 70% of all Modetour agencies operated normally, while the rest were closed. Modetour recently held meetings with agency owners who had been on hiatus to discuss various support measures such as producing banners and posters for reopening sales in November. They also plan to provide volume incentives (VI) for agencies.

Modetour will gradually increase its headquarters staff. Currently, out of about 700 total employees, 180 have returned as of this month. An additional 30 will return next month. By the end of the year, they plan to hold a large-scale travel product discount event with a Black Friday concept. A Modetour official said, "For the Turkey and Spain travel products launched on the 22nd, 1,500 reservations were received over the weekend," adding, "The Saipan product, a first travel safety zone (travel bubble) destination, is also popular."

Travel and activity platform companies have also become busy. Yanolja is conducting large-scale recruitment due to labor shortages. They are hiring about 200 people in engineering, data, and planning positions. A Yanolja official explained, "This recruitment is for developing new businesses including overseas travel and for upgrading existing businesses such as accommodation, activities, and restaurants," adding, "Lead-level developers will receive an additional incentive of about 100 million KRW apart from their annual salary."

Frip, which recently surpassed 1.1 million subscribers, is developing travel products targeting the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z). Ninety percent of Frip users are in their 20s and 30s. Lim Soo-yeol, CEO of Frip, said, "Sales of surfing, freediving, and camping travel products have exploded this year," adding, "We will introduce With Corona-type customized products considering the tastes of the MZ generation."

However, there are concerns that new types of conflicts may arise in inbound (foreigners traveling domestically) travel at the frontline. There are opinions that the system to manage the influx of foreign tourists all at once is still insufficient. Oh Chang-hee, chairman of the Korea Association of Travel Agents, said, "From November 15, a large number of tourists will enter Singapore, the second travel bubble destination, but even a restaurant that has dealt with one travel agency for 20 years said it will not accept foreign group tourists, which is a difficult situation," adding, "There is no PCR center exclusively for foreign tourists, so if foreign groups and Koreans mix, various conflicts may arise." He continued, "It is positive that Southeast Asia, the main market including Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, is gradually opening, raising expectations for industry recovery," emphasizing, "If the government quickly blocks conflict factors and opens the Japanese and Chinese markets, the travel industry will revive."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.