Online tools offer tourists greater independence

Home > >

print dictionary print

Online tools offer tourists greater independence

테스트

A traveler receives advice in the Jeju Air FIT Lounge in Kota-Kinabalu, Malaysia. [Jeju Air]

As the number of tourists traveling overseas increases, new services that offer tourists more freedom to plan and tailor their own itineraries have started to emerge.

Traditionally, packaged tour holidays have always been very popular in Korea. Travelers did not need to do much research as travel agencies designed programs that encompassed everything from airline tickets to trips to local shopping centers.

But as information on popular destinations and sites becomes more readily available online, tourists are less willing to follow the prescribed itinerary of a tour guide and are more interested in planning their own trips.

According to research institute Consumer Insight, 60 percent of respondents who traveled between June and August chose to do so independently, while 30 percent opted to travel as part of scheduled tours. 70 percent of respondents aged in their 20s to 30s chose to travel independently.


Making use of mobile technology

“Increased use of mobile technology has allowed travellers easier access to various travel services and information. Thus, a lot of travel services are now more advanced to meet the personalized needs of travelers. Also, social media has definitely changed the travel scene as sharing the most up-to-date information on sites among travellers has become a natural phenomenon,” said Yoon Jie-min, a director at the Institute for Real Tourism.


One-stop shop

Jeju Air introduced the FIT Lounge, a one-stop shop that allows travelers to book accommodation, vehicles and attractions, in Guam in 2012.

The lounge offers an online version for Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Macao and also offers visitors information on shopping, vehicle rental, luggage storage, translation and hotel pickup services. Jeju Air also offer similar services in Malaysia and Vietnam
“As the number of individual travelers increases and the use of low cost television increases, the number of serviced tourists seems to be reduced,” explained Park Jung-Jun from the Jeju Air public relations team. The airline predicts that the number of tourists using packaged tours will continue to decrease.


Flight and hotel packages

Iamtour is a customized package service that allows travelers to book their flight and hotel together.

“Since 2014, the number of users has grown about 20 to 30 percent annually”, said a spokesperson of Iamtour.

According to the company, customers enjoy the opportunity to travel freely whilst having their accommodation and travel taken care of.

More customers are willing to organize their own tours using local guides once they arrive at their destination, according to the spokesman.


Online expertise

Some online communities are already leading travel trends. Yeourang, Pleasure Trip in Taiwan, and Taesarang are online communities that provide tourists with travel advice. Each group is specialized in information about different destinations, including Europe, Taiwan, and Thailand.

Yeourang, a group dedicated to travel in Europe, has 1,6 million users, whilst Pleasure Trip in Taiwan has 324,000. The groups offer opportunities for tourists to arrange to meet up and travel together. There is a review section, which allows users to review the sights they visited and any meetings with local experts they arranged. More traditional travel information, such as advice on restaurants, tickets, accommodation, weather and sights are also available.

The Yeourang group allows users to purchase tickets, often at reduced prices, directly through the website.

“The information I got from Yeourang was actually very accurate. Because the information is mostly about personal experiences, it was very reliable. Restaurants differ according to preference, but the traffic information and services were accurate,” explained one user, surnamed Cho.


Bespoke tours

For travelers who are uncomfortable planning their trip entirely on their own, some tour companies are now offering bespoke packages that allow tourists to design a trip around their own interests without the stress of organizing it themselves.

Kim Kee-hyun, the president of Touristar, a company that designs tours directly around a customers interests, explained “the concept of individual travel is not only for tourists in their 20s, but also in their 40s and even at all ages. It is becoming increasingly popular with middle-aged travelers.”

Kim added that “a growing number of tourists who are familiar with package travel increasingly find it inconvenient, so traveling independently has been selected as a replacement.”

BY kim hyeon-ji [suguswl1003@naver.com]
Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)