2030·School Trips... Increasing Customized Content for 'Japanese Tourists'

Japanese Tourists Visited Korea 2.32 Million Last Year
Korea Tourism Organization Promotes Visit Content with 'Gourmet' Theme

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization announced on the 22nd that they will implement customized strategies to accelerate the recovery of Japanese tourists visiting Korea.

Last year, the Korea Tourism Organization hosted the Korea-Japan University Students Friendship Event.
[Photo by Korea Tourism Organization]

First, they will focus on expanding the attraction of women in their 20s and 30s, who are leading travel to Korea within Japan, as well as targeting male tourists and overseas school trip groups.

Specifically, the Korea Tourism Organization plans to carry out various projects including ▲strengthening loyalty among repeat visitors to Korea ▲enhancing marketing using local tourism content such as gourmet food ▲collaboration and promotion of tourism content to encourage regional tourism ▲and revitalizing exchanges between future generations of Korea and Japan.

In particular, they will concentrate on expanding repeat visitors centered on women in their 20s and 30s, who account for 42% of all Japanese visitors to Korea. Using "gourmet food," the most preferred content in Korean travel, they will promote various inbound tourism contents to encourage visits to local areas, and conduct campaigns to induce repeat visits through collaboration with domestic prepaid card companies and local credit card companies mainly used by Japanese, thereby contributing to the expansion of tourism consumption.

Additionally, marketing targeting Japanese men, who have recently shown high interest in Korea, will also be promoted. According to the "Survey on Overseas Travel and Travel to Korea by Japanese Men," about 80% of Japanese men responded that they "would consider traveling to Korea," confirming it as a potential market; however, the fixed image of "Korea = a travel destination for women" remains very strong.

Accordingly, based on male customer interest content such as alleyway gourmet tours and bike tours discovered last year, the organization will actively expand the attraction of male tourists starting this year.

Furthermore, aiming to reclaim the top spot as the overseas school trip destination in 2028, focus will also be placed on expanding educational travel for future generations. The organization will actively respond to the changing Japanese school trip market, shifting from the traditional pattern of "whole school participation" to "individual or small group participation," and conduct locally tailored marketing by discovering and proposing experiential programs preferred by Japanese schools.

Jo Hee-jin, Director of International Marketing at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, "In 2023, the number of Japanese visitors to Korea reached 2.31 million, recovering more than 70% compared to 2019, showing the highest recovery rate among other countries. To firmly establish Korea as the number one overseas travel destination for Japanese, we plan to strengthen local marketing activities for strategic discovery of potential demand, including holding K-tourism roadshows starting in March in Tokyo and Fukuoka," he said.

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