Global travel platform Yanolja revealed the '2022 Korean Travel Behavior Report' based on its most extensive pool of travel big data.

After a year of many changes in the travel industry through the Pandemic and Endemic, Yanolja analyzed domestic and overseas travel data (from Yanolja and Interpark, respectively) of Koreans in 2022, as the No. 1 travel platform in Korea. First, domestic travel showed consistent growth each month, indicating that the distinction between peak and off-peak seasons was somewhat less pronounced. In contrast, over 80% of overseas travel reservations were concentrated in the latter half of the year, after countries began to ease travel regulations.

The number of travel reservations booked hit an average of 50,000 per day. In particular, overseas package tour reservations increased by 2064% compared to the previous year, and international flight ticket sales increased by 1171%, a testament to the explosive increase in demand for overseas travel. Last year, Interpark customers traveled approximately 3.2 billion kilometers on international flights, meaning that, they circled the globe more than 80,000 times. Put differently, the distance is equivalent to over 4,000 round trips between the Earth and the Moon.

The most popular destination for international flights was Japan (20.7%). Despite it being the last country to ease restrictions among the countries in the ranks, Japan's explosive popularity put it in first place. It was followed by Vietnam (16.3%), Thailand (11.9%), the United States (9.4%), and the Philippines (8.5%). The short-distance overseas destinations traditionally most visited by Koreans, such as Vietnam (26.9%), Thailand (10.7%), the Philippines (9.3%), Japan (8.2%), and Guam (4.7%), also recorded strong numbers in package tours.

In the domestic market, the year-on-year growth rate for individual travel periods was 6 nights 7 days at 85%, 5 nights 6 days at 63%, and 4 nights 5 days at 52%, in order of growth, indicating that growth was strongest for mid-to-long-term travel. On the other hand, overseas travel revealed a more dichotomous pattern where the longest-term trip of 9 nights and 10 days or more grew over 1,600-fold, followed by short-term travel periods such as 2 nights and 3 days (22228%) and 3 nights and 4 days (16032%).

Domestic travel showed a consistent pattern of growth with an increased demand for mid-to-long-term travel, a stark contrast from the pattern in overseas travel, where travel was concentrated in the second half of the year and growth was strong for both short- and long-term travel. Going forward, Yanolja will continue to harness Korea's largest pool of travel big data to set trends in travel and provide optimized services based on accurate predictions of customer needs and demands.