"After One Year of Workation... Escaping Deficit and Starting to Make Profit"

MyRealTrip 1 Year After Introducing 365-Day Workation
Kim Doa COO "Changing the Way We Work"

"An important part of the organizational culture that enabled growth even during the pandemic is WFA (Work From Anywhere)." Kim Do-a, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of MyRealTrip, cited the system that allowed employees to work from anywhere in the world without coming to the office as the reason for their ability to grow during COVID-19. Since its founding in 2012, MyRealTrip has implemented '365-day autonomous remote work,' allowing members to choose when and where to work effectively. Expanding on this, since August last year, employees have been able to work from anywhere in the world, including travel destinations. After spending a year with 'workation,' concerns such as 'won't productivity decline if you don't go to the office to work?' are far from MyRealTrip’s experience. On the contrary, performance has expanded, and last month they surpassed the break-even point for the first time.

Kim Do-a MyRealTrip COO

COO Kim said, "This year, we have already far exceeded the transaction volume before COVID-19, and last month, we significantly improved profitability, surpassing the break-even point, proving that we can create sustainable growth on our own." MyRealTrip achieved sales of 22 billion KRW last year, growing about five times compared to the previous year. However, due to continuous investment, they also recorded an operating loss of about 27.5 billion KRW. Then, in July this year, they surpassed the monthly break-even point for the first time and are expecting to achieve an annual surplus.

While increased travel demand played a role, COO Kim explained that the reason they have already surpassed the recovery to pre-COVID-19 levels lies in changes in the way of working. He said, "If the existing clear separation of time and place was seen as work-life balance, now the perspective is changing to the idea that if you can choose for yourself, time and place are not important." For example, COO Kim recently chose to work from a hotel for half a day every three to four days during a two-week trip to Spain to handle necessary tasks. In the past, working during a vacation might have been seen negatively, but now, handling necessary work as it arises is recognized as a way to fully enjoy the vacation rather than dealing with accumulated work afterward. Employees have also been able to spend time at travel destinations and prepare services from the customer's perspective. According to COO Kim, these cases have accumulated to increase efficiency.

So how did MyRealTrip employees utilize workation over the past year? COO Kim said, "Solo workations ranged from as short as three days to over a month, both domestically and abroad." Workations with family tended to be longer, often involving overseas trips with young children. COO Kim said, "By using time differences, employees worked remotely from Korea as usual and spent their remaining time engaging in various activities and spending time with family, which was well received by the staff."

There were also team-based workations. Recently, a case of a team workation in Jeju was shared. There were also instances where company members traveled together with support from local governments such as Samcheok and Busan. This helped resolve some shortcomings of remote work and fostered team cohesion.

MyRealTrip operates a performance management program that measures results rather than working location or time to establish workation as a form of work. Above all, they emphasize 'information sharing.' COO Kim stressed, "Information imbalance or lack that can occur during non-face-to-face work directly affects work performance. All information should be organized and shared so that necessary members can easily access it, and most communication happens on public channels."

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