'Travelzilians' Open... Overseas Travel Demand Soars

Major Travel Agencies See Recovery in Airline Ticket and Package Sales
Booking Rates Surge on Short-Haul Routes to Japan and Southeast Asia

Incheon Airport Terminal 1 is bustling with travelers.
Yeongjongdo - Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The keyword that the travel industry is emphasizing this year is 'Travelilience (Travel + Resilience).' This reflects signs that the demand for overseas travel, which was suppressed for three years due to the impact of COVID-19, is rapidly reviving. As key domestic travel agencies show noticeable increases in overseas travel-related indicators, there are forecasts that the number of travelers going abroad will recover to pre-pandemic (global pandemic) levels, when more than 20 million people traveled overseas.

According to the travel and securities industries on the 3rd, the number of outbound travelers this year is expected to be around 20.05 million. This means a recovery to 70% compared to the number of overseas travelers in 2019, before COVID-19, which was 28.71 million. This figure is more than three times the approximately 6.27 million overseas travelers last year. A survey conducted by the global online travel agency (OTA) 'Klook' targeting users found that 8 out of 10 Koreans (78%) hope to travel abroad this year, and 35% plan to travel overseas more than twice.

A sharp recovery trend is also seen in the overseas travel sales volume of major domestic travel agencies. Hana Tour recorded 696.3 billion KRW in overseas airline ticket sales last year, a 580% increase compared to the previous year. During the same period, the number of Hana Tour overseas travel package purchasers estimated by the securities industry was 226,000, a 3,235% increase from the previous year. Consumers who traveled abroad using Modetour package products are also estimated to have increased by 3,800% to 148,000 compared to the previous year. Data compiled based on travel big data by leisure platform Yanolja and Interpark also showed that last year, the number of overseas package reservations increased by 2,064% and the number of international airline ticket sales increased by 1,171% compared to the previous year.

A Hana Tour official said, "Airline ticket sales performance serves as an indicator to predict upcoming travel trends," adding, "At the beginning of this year, airline ticket prices are stabilizing further, and the increase in overseas travel is expected to become even more pronounced."

In fact, the overseas travel reservation rate has increased sharply at the beginning of the year. Hana Tour's reservation rates for January and February were found to have increased by 6,745% and 6,645% respectively compared to the previous month. During the same period, Modetour's rates increased by 11,384% and 9,163% respectively. With the easing of COVID-19 quarantine measures and the overlap with the Lunar New Year holiday, demand to travel to nearby regions such as Japan and Southeast Asia during this period is surging. Norangpungseon saw search volumes for Japan package products departing in January increase by 609% for Osaka, 403% for Kyushu, and 365% for Hokkaido compared to the previous month. During this period, the proportion of overseas travel reservations for short-distance trips (61.2%) was much higher than for long-distance trips (38.8%).

A travel industry insider said, "As overseas travel demand rapidly increases, competition among companies to secure airline tickets is very fierce," adding, "Package and special sale product configurations must be operated flexibly according to flight availability."

Whether travel to China will normalize soon is also a point of interest. For now, the industry expects demand to travel to China to be limited due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19 and quarantine measures. However, if the situation stabilizes, China could once again emerge as a major destination for Korean travelers. Before COVID-19, China was a popular travel destination with over 4 million Korean visitors annually, second only to Japan.

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