[Yanolja Research Insight Vol. 31] Beyond the Ballpark: Baseball is Powering South Koreas'

Baseball Tourism: When 12 Million Fans Become a New Engine for Regional Travel

In 2025, Korea’s professional baseball league celebrated a historic milestone — for the first time in its 44-year history, it welcomed 12 million spectators in a single season.

This achievement goes far beyond record-breaking attendance. It represents a massive population movement of over 12 million people traveling across the country, centered around their hometown teams and stadiums.

With ten franchises located across the country in eight different cities, Korean baseball has evolved into more than a sport — it’s now emerging as a powerful tourism asset, driving local visitation and on-site spending.

In this issue of Yanolja Research Insight Vol.31, we explore:

✅ How professional baseball is becoming a new engine for regional tourism
✅ Travel behaviors of metropolitan fans visiting regional stadiums
✅ Global best practices and key takeaways for sports-driven tourism

 

Baseball as a Key to Unlock Regional Tourism Potential

Regional tourism revitalization has long been a core mission in Korea’s tourism policy.

Yet it continues to face two chronic challenges: insufficient demand and Seoul-centric concentration.

The rise of professional baseball as a “12-million-fan industry” may hold the key to solving both. Because professional baseball inherently operates across eight home cities nationwide, it naturally generates large-scale population flows — making it a distributed tourism asset in itself.

If baseball games evolve beyond one-off sports events into experiences that make people travel, stay, and spend in regional cities, they could ease the challenges and boost regional tourism. 

Baseball Fans as Travelers, Not Just Spectators

To better understand how baseball influences tourism, Yanolja Research surveyed 500 fans living in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon about their travel, spending, and stay patterns when visiting non-capital stadiums.

The results reveal that away-game fans are already behaving like local tourists:

• Before games: dining or snack purchases (76%), café/restaurant visits (60%), sightseeing (36%)
• After games: dining or café visits (46%), pub or bar visits (40.6%)
• Accommodation: among fans traveling over 300km, over 65% stayed overnight (especially high in Busan 87%, Changwon 75%)
  

In other words, baseball fans visiting regional stadiums are not merely spectators — they are active travelers who dine, stay overnight, and explore local attractions, naturally transforming into stay-type tourists who contribute to the regional economy.

Global Best Practices: When Stadiums Become Destinations

How can Korea expand these stay-type baseball tourists and turn professional baseball into a sustainable driver of regional tourism?

Our analysis of domestic and international cases points to three strategic approaches:

1️⃣ Make stadiums destinations — “Turn stadiums into year-round attractions.”
 • Yankee Stadium Tour (New York Yankees)
 • Smile Glico Park (Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles)
 • F Village (Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters)

2️⃣ Develop integrated travel packages — “Combine games, hotels, transport, and tourism.”
 • Mariners Vacations (Seattle Mariners)
 • Tokyo Dome Hotel Giants Concept Room (Yomiuri Giants)

3️⃣ Build symbiotic Relationships — “Team × City Collaboration.”
 • I LOVE NY Baseball campaign (New York State X The Yankees and Mets)
 • Carp Pilgrimage (Hiroshima X Hiroshima Toyo Carp)
 • Baseball Trip (Gwangju X KIA Tigers), Tour Pass + Ticket Package (Changwon X NC Dinos)

When these three strategies align, professional baseball go beyond sport and becomes a cultural medium that designs city experiences and extends traveler stays.

Professional baseball is no longer just about games. It triggers movement, spending, overnight stays, and collective memories that tie people to cities.

With its league system built on intercity mobility, the KBO already holds the potential to be a key player in regional economic revitalization.

Now, as the 12-million-fan era unfolds, strategic tourism initiatives can unlock that potential — turning baseball into a truly explosive growth engine for local economies.

👉 For deeper insights, check out the full paper below. 

Vol.31 Beyond the Ballpark: Exploring the Role of Baseball in Regional Tourism

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