Online Travel Transaction Amount Reaches 24 Trillion Won... Complaints of Contact Loss and Refund Delays

Consumer Agency's Satisfaction Survey on 4 Travel Platforms
14% of Respondents Report Dissatisfaction or Damage Experience
'Price' Important When Choosing Companies

Annual travel transaction volume through online shopping has become so active that it has exceeded 24 trillion won, while about 15 out of 100 consumers reported dissatisfaction or experienced damage during use.

The Korea Consumer Agency announced on the 24th that a survey on consumer satisfaction and usage behavior was conducted on 1,600 consumers aged 20 to 60 and above who had used four travel platforms within the last two years, revealing that 14.0% (224 people) of respondents experienced dissatisfaction or damage while using travel platforms.

By type, 'No contact with customer center' was the most common at 28.1%, followed by 'Reservation cancellations due to overbooking (Overbooking refers to airlines or hotels accepting more reservations than the actual available seats or rooms)' at 21.4%, and 'Delayed or refused refunds' at 20.5%.

The main factor consumers consider when choosing a travel platform was 'price' (47.9%). The most common reason for switching from a previously used platform to another was also 'because the price was cheaper,' accounting for 43.5%. Among 1,600 evaluations of the four travel platforms, complaints related to price and fees accounted for 15.2% (243 cases).

In this survey, the average overall satisfaction score for the four companies was 3.68 out of 5. By company, Yeogi Eottae scored the highest at 3.80, followed by Yanolja (3.72), Trip.com (3.63), and Agoda (3.56). By service category, satisfaction with core services such as price and travel products was highest at 3.83, followed by customer service environment satisfaction at 3.67, and positive/negative emotional experience satisfaction at 3.53.

By detailed factors, satisfaction with application (app) convenience (3.81) and travel products (4.04) was high, but satisfaction with personal information protection (3.50) and travel customer center (3.62) was relatively low. In service experience, 'positive emotions' scored 3.42, which was lower than 'negative emotions' at 3.77; notably, among positive emotions, the feeling of 'being respected' was the lowest at 3.17.

82.0% (1,312 people) of respondents had experience searching for travel platform reviews. The main search criteria used were 'latest reviews' (36.0%) and 'highest ratings' (27.2%).

Based on the results of this survey, the Korea Consumer Agency recommended travel platform operators to improve services by ▲ resolving customer center inconveniences ▲ enhancing trust in personal information protection systems ▲ increasing transparency of travel product prices and fees.

Meanwhile, according to Statistics Korea, the transaction amount for travel and transportation services, including airline tickets, railways, and accommodation providers, reached 24.1373 trillion won last year, more than doubling from 9.1051 trillion won in 2021. The average payment amount per person for the most recent travel product purchased on travel platforms by survey respondents was 161,000 won for domestic travel and 635,000 won for overseas travel. This amount excludes individual travel expenses such as local shopping and meals for one trip.

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