Yanolja Research

Changes in Flights by Route Before and After the Middle East War (YoY) ✈️ Flight growth continued after the Middle East war—but the picture varied sharply by region. South Korea’s international flights remained above year-earlier levels after the conflict began, but regional trends diverged. While Japan, China, the Americas, and Europe continued to record positive growth, flights to Oceania fell 13.5% and those to the Middle East & Africa dropped 43.7% year on year in the post-war period. What explains the divide? Short-haul markets such as Japan and China continued to benefit from solid demand and relatively lower exposure to higher fuel costs, while resilient demand and airline capacity strategies may have supported routes to the Americas and Europe. The decline in weaker markets may also reflect airlines prioritizing limited aircraft and operating resources for routes with more resilient demand. Rather than a broad contraction, the emerging pattern points to a reconfiguration of...

What Makes a Festival Truly Competitive? Korea’s festival landscape is growing rapidly. But scale alone does not determine success. What matters more is whether a festival gives visitors a distinctive experience they remember, share, and want to return to . Across Korea, the strongest festivals tend to combine two things: being well known and being genuinely well liked. Korea’s Top Festivals Share a Clear Sense of Place The Seoul International Fireworks Festival ranked first overall among 1,452 festivals evaluated nationwide. Jinhae Gunhangje Festival, Chunhyang Festival, Seoul Lantern Festival, and Boryeong Mud Festival also placed near the top. A common thread among many leading festivals is simple: They give visitors a reason to go to that specific place. Jinhae is closely associated with its cherry blossoms, Namwon’s Chunhyang Festival draws on the Chunhyang story and Gwanghallu, and Boryeong has built a distinctive experience around mud. These locally rooted elements are d...

Foreign tourist arrivals to South Korea are holding near the 2 million mark per month. ✈️🇰🇷 In H1 2026, Korea welcomed a record 10.71 million foreign tourists—up 21.3% year-over-year and 26.9% from H1 2019. After exceeding 2 million in March, monthly arrivals remained close to that level through June. The growth was broad-based across source markets, with China, Japan, and Taiwan all recording strong increases. Inbound tourism also expanded beyond the capital region, with arrivals through regional airports and seaports growing substantially compared with 2019. And the momentum continues: July recorded 2.09 million foreign tourist arrivals, the highest monthly figure so far this year. 📄 For an in-depth analysis of Korea’s H1 2026 inbound and outbound tourism performance, read Yanolja Research Brief Vol.14. Vol.14 Analysis of Korea's Inbound and Outbound Tourism Performance for H1 2026 📊 For the latest monthly tourism data, visit the Yanolja Research Data Lab. Yanolja Research Da...

 What makes a city truly attractive to travelers? The 2026 Yanolja Attractiveness Index looks beyond infrastructure and visitor numbers to evaluate tourism cities from the traveler’s perspective. The index combines two key dimensions: 💭 Awareness — How widely is the city known and talked about? ❤️ Attractiveness — How positively do travelers feel about the city? Based on large-scale multilingual social data, the 2026 study evaluated 261 cities worldwide. New York ranked #1 overall, while Osaka ranked #1 in Attractiveness. Seoul placed #5 overall, combining strong global awareness with highly positive evaluations of the actual travel experience. 📊 Explore the full city rankings: Yanolja Attractiveness Index Ranking 📄 Read the full 2026 Yanolja Attractiveness Index report: [Yanolja Research Insights Vol.45] The 2026 Yanolja Attractiveness Index

More courses, more players — and growth is in full swing.🏌️ South Korea’s park golf scene is expanding rapidly. The number of courses grew from 328 in 2022 to 552 in 2025, while Korea Parkgolf Association membership more than doubled from 106,505 to 229,757 over the same period. With both infrastructure and participation accelerating, park golf is emerging as a notable segment of Korea’s broader leisure and golf landscape. Want to know what’s next for South Korea’s golf industry? ⛳ Explore how demographic shifts and macroeconomic trends are reshaping the industry — and what they could mean for its future. [Yanolja Research Insights Vol.29] The Future of the Golf Industry: Demographics and Macroeconomic Trends

How much do hotel room rates change throughout the year in South Korea? Hotel room rates show a clear seasonal pattern. Nationwide hotel ADR (Average Daily Rate) remained relatively low from April to June 2025 before rising sharply in July and peaking during the summer travel season. Rates moderated afterward, but continued to fluctuate at elevated levels through early 2026. These monthly movements illustrate how closely hotel pricing responds to shifts in travel demand throughout the year. Explore the latest lodging industry trends—including ADR, OCC, and RevPAR—on the Yanolja Research Data Lab dashboard. [Yanolja Research DataLab] Lodging industry performance indexes Dashboard

How South Korea’s International Aviation Market Is Shifting Amid Middle East Uncertainty Geopolitical uncertainty in the Middle East has added new pressure to the global aviation market. Rising fuel costs, higher passenger surcharges, and changing route economics are influencing how airlines allocate capacity. In South Korea, however, the emerging picture is not one of broad market contraction . Instead, growth is becoming increasingly differentiated across airlines, routes, and regions. Fuel Costs Rose Quickly. Aviation Supply Is Adjusting More Gradually. Restrictions affecting the Strait of Hormuz drove a sharp increase in jet fuel prices. Prices rose approximately 83% in just three weeks , from USD 2.43 per gallon to USD 4.45. Six months later, prices remained around 44% above the pre-conflict level . The impact subsequently reached travelers: International fuel surcharges increased to roughly three times their March level in April . Surcharges rose again in May before declining fro...

What makes a tourism city truly attractive? The 2026 Yanolja Attractiveness Index looks beyond infrastructure and visitor numbers to evaluate tourism cities from the traveler’s perspective—how cities are perceived, experienced, and remembered. The framework breaks Tourism City Attractiveness into 4 dimensions and 17 sub-dimensions: 🌿 Beauty & Natural Scenery Natural scenery and phenomena · Flora and fauna 🏛️ Culture & History Historical places · Educational places · Traditional culture · Religious attractions · Architectural and aesthetic attractions 🍽️ Experiential Content Food · Accommodations · Shopping · Theme parks · Nightlife · Sports · Activities · Festivals and events 🤝 Hospitality Friendliness of local residents · Friendliness of service providers The key idea is simple: tourism attractiveness is not merely the sum of a city’s resources. Nature and culture provide things to see, experiential content creates things to do, and hospitality shapes what travelers ultima...

South Korea’s Tourism Market Enters a New Phase in H1 2026 South Korea’s tourism market showed a notable shift in the first half of 2026. Inbound tourism reached a new high, outbound travel approached pre-pandemic levels, and the tourism balance improved sharply. Behind the headline numbers, several structural changes are emerging—from more diversified inbound demand and regional gateways to the growing role of high-value tourism and changing outbound travel patterns. Inbound Tourism Reaches a New High Foreign tourist arrivals reached 10.71 million in H1 2026 , the highest level recorded for any first-half period. That represents: +21.3% year-over-year +26.9% compared with H1 2019 Continued monthly strength after arrivals surpassed 2 million in March Growth was also broad-based. Asian arrivals exceeded pre-pandemic levels, while demand from the Americas, Europe, Oceania, the Middle East, and Africa continued to expand. China, Japan and Taiwan Drive Strong Growth China remained Korea’s ...

Q2 2026 South Korea Lodging Performance Improved Acroos All Property Types  South Korea’s lodging market recorded broad-based growth in Q2 2026, with RevPAR improving across every major property type compared with Q2 2025. Occupancy growth generally outpaced ADR growth, indicating that demand recovery—not room-rate increases—was the primary performance driver. Key highlights: • 5-star hotels led the market with RevPAR up 32.2%, supported by a 21.6% increase in occupancy. • Vacation rentals and resorts followed with RevPAR growth of 22.4% and 20.7%, respectively. • The overall hotel/resort segment recorded ADR growth of 6.0%, occupancy growth of 9.1%, and RevPAR growth of 15.6%. • Pensions also returned to positive RevPAR growth, as higher occupancy offset a decline in ADR. The findings suggest that inbound tourism growth and seasonal demand recovery strengthened lodging performance across both premium and mid-to-lower-priced segments. For further details and the full analysis, plea...