'Promoting Spending by Japanese Tourists' Korea Tourism Organization Signs MOU with Orange Square

Prepaid Card 'Wow Pass' for Foreign Tourists
Approximately 60% of All Users Are Japanese

The Korea Tourism Organization announced on the 29th that it has signed a business agreement with Orange Square to promote increased spending by Japanese tourists visiting Korea and to analyze their consumption patterns.

Foreign tourists lining up to use the Korea Tourism Organization Wow Pass
[Photo by Korea Tourism Organization]

Orange Square is a company that launched Wow Pass, the first prepaid card in Korea combining payment, currency exchange, and transportation card functions for foreign tourists.

The cumulative number of Wow Pass issuances surpassed 600,000 by the end of last month, with about 60% of all users being Japanese.

The Tourism Organization explained that the average spending of Japanese tourists in Korea is relatively low due to the short travel duration and the characteristics of the nearby market with many repeat visitors, and that they partnered with Orange Square to overcome this situation.

Through this agreement, both organizations plan to analyze the visitation sites and consumption patterns of Japanese tourists by gender and age group using Wow Pass payment data. Based on this, they intend to establish more systematic, customized content discovery and marketing strategies targeting primarily women in their 20s and 30s and potential male customers.

Starting in March, a joint incentive campaign targeting Japanese repeat visitors will be conducted, along with various events such as selecting the ‘Visitation King’ who visited Korea the most and the ‘Shopping King’ who spent the most. Additionally, online promotions using well-known local influencers and campaign promotions at the ‘K-Tourism Roadshow’ held in major Japanese cities such as Tokyo and Osaka will continue.

Park Seong-ung, head of the Japan team at the Tourism Organization, said, "We hope that sharing the Wow Pass payment data analysis results with the tourism industry will contribute to enhancing Korea’s inbound tourism competitiveness and serve as a model case of public-private cooperation." He added, "We will continue to promote collaboration with various organizations such as OTAs, telecommunications companies, and card companies to strengthen data-driven marketing."

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