South Korea - Tourism Source Market Insight

South Korea - Tourism Source Market Insight

Summary

GlobalData’s Tourism Source Market Insight: South Korea report provides a thorough insight into the South Korea's domestic and outbound tourism market. The report looks at the profiles of South Korean tourists and summarizes the key reasons that they travel. The report offers an in-depth analysis of traveler flows, spending patterns, main destination markets and current and future opportunities for tourism businesses seeking to tap into the South Korea's outbound travel market.

Key Highlights

According to the GlobalData's Q3 2021 consumer survey, gastronomical holidays are one of the most preferred types of holiday for South Korean travelers with 44% of people stating that they would prefer to take gastronomical holidays. This is significantly higher than the global average of 26%. 39% of South Korean respondents are also influenced by popular destinations for food and drinks when deciding on a holiday destination, higher than the global average of 33%.

Transportation and retail have consistently been the top sectors of spending for South Korean travelers abroad. They comprised 36.9% and 21.6% respectively of the total outbound tourism expenditure in 2023.

China is slowly re-developing as a prominent destination market for South Korean travelers. The number of South Korean travelers departing for China increased to 424 thousand in 2023 and is forecast to grow further with a CAGR of 34.09% for 2023-2028, highlighting the growing interest in the destination.

According to GlobalData’s Traveler Spending Patterns database, outbound expenditure reached a high of $38 billion in 2018, following steady growth from $24.5 billion in 2013 (CAGR 2013-18: 9.18%). This outbound tourism industry expenditure experienced a notable fall in 2020 and 2021 to reach an all- time low of $2 billion in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The overall outbound spending for 2023 reached $22.8 billion showing a movement in the positive direction.

Scope

This report is part of GlobalData's Source Market Insights Series. This report provides an in-depth analysis of traveler flows, spending patterns, main destination markets, as well as current and future opportunities for tourism businesses seeking to tap into the outbound travel market.

Reasons to Buy

This report provides clear insight into developments in South Korea's regional and outbound tourism markets. The report uses data and analysis to discuss future trends related to domestic trips, international departures, traveler spending, and main destination markets.