Package tour sales surge as Koreans travel overseas

Travelers off to international destinations stand in line to check in their baggage at Incheon International Airport on Dec. 5. [NEWS1]

Package tour bookings soar as travelers fly abroad ahead of the holiday season, helping some travel agencies recover from the collapse of business during the pandemic.

Purchases of package travel tickets in November rose 353 percent compared to the same period last year, according to Interpark. The figure rose 20 percent on month, and was up by 1 percent compared to the same month in 2019 before the pandemic hit.

Vietnam was the No.1 travel spot selected by travelers in Korea, followed by Japan and the Philippines.

Purchases of vacation packages to Japan soared 33,114 percent in November compared to the previous month. The surge was largely due to the full resumption of visa-free entry to Japan starting Oct. 11 and the depreciation fall in the value of the yen.

Hana Tour’s international flight ticket sales exceeded 102.8 billion won ($77.9 million) last month.

This is up 322.2 percent on year. It is also the first time in 35 months that the tour company’s monthly international flight ticket sales exceeded 100 billion won.

Last month’s flight ticket sales were 87.3 percent of the sales in November 2019. By region, the purchase of tickets to Japan surged 376.1 percent compared to 2019. Ticket sales to North America were at 96.2 percent of pre-pandemic levels, according to Hana Tour.

Sales of tickets to Europe recovered 85.4 percent, the South Pacific 86.3 percent and South East Asian countries 76.6 percent.

Despite the rapidly rising sales, a full recovery of the travel industry may still take time.

Bookings of travel starting at the end of November rapidly rose due to rising demand for flights to warm regions in the cold season and mass promotions that took place on Black Friday. But the number of reservations still remains at 60 percent of the pre-pandemic level, according to Mode Tour.

Some travel agencies are still struggling to recover.

The number of travelers that signed up for international travel packages in November through Hana Tour was at 45,009, up 1,757 percent on year. But this figure is still 25 percent of the number in the same month in 2019.

“The travel industry has recovered to only 20 percent of the pre-pandemic level up to the third quarter,” said a spokesperson for Mode Tour.

“If mask mandates are fully lifted and flight schedules fully recover, it is anticipated that the flight sales will recover to 80 to 90 percent in the first half of next year.”

Shrinking consumption due to current financial market conditions and the slow recovery of airline operations are a problem.

“It is definite that the industry will revive, but the issue is the speed,” said Choi Ji-ho, an analyst at Samsung Securities.

“The industry will be able to recover to 70 percent of the pre-pandemic level next year, and exceed 2019 levels by 2024.”

BY YOO JI-YOEN [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]