Amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, tourism trends rapidly evolve. We can see that the era where only those who adapt to the changes fast can survive is well underway.
‘Workation’, ecotourism, pet dog-accompanied travel, etc. have become new trends and we can see the changes emerging in that direction across the world.

#Workation (“work” + “vacation”)
Work from home or remote work has become a universal scene for office workers amid the pandemic, while the boundary between workplace and home has become blurred. With the start of the summer holiday season in 2021, workation (work from your place of vacation) has spread among office workers.
From July this year, Line Plus, a NAVER affiliate, is launching a one-month-long flexible work system, in which its employees are allowed to work far away from Seoul in locales like Jeju and Gangneung for a month or so. Jobis, an AI-based tax accounting startup, provides all employees with two-week special holidays, letting them engage in workation for a week after the holidays, covering about KRW 3 million in workation expense for each employee.
My Real Trip, a travel startup, has instated a system in which after one year of continuous employment, workers can opt for remote work from anywhere they choose for two weeks. Yanolja, a lodging/leisure platform business, also instated a workation system, allowing employees to engage in remote work at all times.

# Ecotourism
Global institutions and the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) refer to ecotourism as a core travel trend in the New Normal Era following 2021. In Australia, Eco Tourism Australia, a non-profit institution, operates an Eco Certification Program, which generates KRW 1.3 trillion a year in sales and 14,000-plus jobs.
Riparide, a shared lodging OTA (online travel agency), Earth Check, and Green Getaways, help travelers locate diverse eco-friendly travel destinations and lodgings. Their facilities feature no air-conditioners and the use of natural energy including solar heat.
In the U.S., slow travel and outdoor activities are well-established travel trends in the New Normal Era. The most popular one among them is long-distance road trips by a car. There has also been a retro/analog-style camping craze among millennials (those born in the 1980s through the 2000s).
In Korea, the DMZ separating the two Koreas is a unique site for ecotourism. Following the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020, the top 100 contact-free-enabled tourism sites and top 100 safe destinations centered on Natural ecology were designated.

#Travel with your pet dog
With an increase in the number of people traveling with their pet dogs, Sono Pet Club & Resort opened in October 2020 at Vivaldi Park in Hongcheon remodeled 158 guestrooms to accommodate pet dogs and provides a pet dog playground sized 2,314 ㎡ (=0.6 acre). The St. Johns Hotel near Gangmun Beach, Gangneung allows people to enter hotel restaurants with their pet dog if a pet dog case or stroller is brought along. The Ramada Hotel Pyeongchang opened 37 pet dog guestrooms, starting in June 2020. Nami Island, which had been known for not allowing pet dogs, has adopted a new rule, allowing the entry of pet dogs weighing less than 15 kg.

#K-hallyu
The cultural tourism programs linked to ‘hallyu’ (worldwide Korean pop culture/content wave), fashion, beauty, drama, film, etc. are expected to continue to grow. In July 2021, the KTO arranged a virtual school trip for a thousand Japanese middle/high school students on the theme of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an event geared for the post-COVID-19 era. The virtual trip included a visit to the Culture Tank (named after the former Oil Tank that had been there) in Mapo-gu, Seoul. It was praised as an attempt to discover new aspects of Korean tourism on themes like urban regeneration, environment, history, culture, hallyu, peace, etc. to foreign students, using a space for cultural activities built on what was an industrial facility.
Touch the K, a space for hands-on experience of Korean culture in Tenjin, Fukuoka opened in July this year is also becoming a site that has gained traction with the Japanese MZ generation. The place provides photo zones that look like popular travel destinations in Seoul and spaces where visitors can have hands-on experience of Korean cosmetics and traditional handicrafts and get information useful for their trip to Korea.
There the webtoon ‘SARANGXSHIBUTA I love you very much, ‘Dakara Korea’ was introduced to visitors. It is a story of a Japanese student Sarangi studying in Korea with her pet pig Shibuta getting to know about Korea. The webtoon depicts local tourism contents related to Busan, Andong, Gangneung, Mokpo, and Jeonju.

# Using OTT (Over-the-top media service)
With the development of Metaverse-related new businesses, tourism PR linked to them grows even larger with some of them being linked to terrestrial broadcasting. It is expected that the businesses will continue to expand their territories including travel-related contents for broadcasting, Netflix-related contents, ads using travel program-related OTT films, etc.
Netflix, which is a global OTT service business, jointly with the KTO released ‘Explore Korea’, a film showing the unique beauty of Korea represented in the featured contents.
The film uploaded to the KTO’s YouTube channel (youtube.com/VisitKorea) attracted views by shedding light on diverse aspects of Korea including its past & present, history & culture, and local’s lifestyle. It is noteworthy that a Korean TV drama ‘Kingdom’ is included in this film. Many people across the world expressed their great interest in traditional clothes of the Joseon Period of Korea, starting the so-called Gat (Hat) Syndrome.
The size of the OTT market for Korean films or TV dramas in Southeast Asia is also growing fast. The most influential OTT platforms in ASEAN countries (i.e. Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore) are Viu operated by PCCW and FPT Play of the FPT Group. Korean contents account for 90% in Viu. It rebroadcasts the TV show contents aired in Korea to these countries in a few hours.
There are also tourism PR contents linked to dance and music. Last year, the Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism (MCST) and KTO achieved success in the production of ‘Tiger Is Coming’, a tourism PR film, a collaboration of Lee Nalchi’s pansori and Ambiguous Dance Company’s modern dance. In September this year, they introduced another tourism PR film ‘Feel the Rhythm of Korea’ Season 2 with local folk songs mixed with K-hip hop.
Currently, GTO plans to make a tourism PR film, using the 17 Unique Venues around the province selected this year. The film will have dynamic contents with the mixture of dance and music, showing pleasant local travel destinations including the following sites filmed with the world-famous Korean dance crew ONE MILLION: The Shrine of Our Lady of Rosary of Namyang in Hwaseong, Art Bunker B39 in Bucheon, Gwangmyeong Cave in Gwangmyeong, etc. The film will be uploaded to GTO’s YouTube channel and used diversely for promoting the Unique Venues.

#Smart Tourism
The budget and support for Smart Tourism projects will be increased. Suwon, which was selected as ‘Smart Tourism City of the Year’ in 2021, will provide an opportunity for a new tourism experience, using smart technology without doing any physical harm to objects in Hwaseong, Suwon. Visitors will enjoy the integrated tourist informational service on destinations/transportation through their smart phone. The AI secretary will provide sophisticated/customized service on information required by visitors. It is expected that diverse contents about hands-on experience of past historic events including XR (Extended Reality) Mobility Hwaseong-eo-cha 1795 haeng, which presents the route of King Jeongjo’s trip to his father’s tomb in Hwaseong, promises to up Suwon in the spotlight for local and overseas visitors.
The day will soon arrive when hands-on experience of tourism trends changing every day is a reality in the New Normal Era.