The Era of 20 Million Foreign Tourists: Is Your Property Attractive to Them?...
Weekly ON Vol.169
August 04, 2026
This Week's Weekly ON
🏨 The Era of 20 Million Foreign Tourists: Is Your Property Attractive to Them? 💡 Hotel Doljanchis: Shifting from 'Grand Banquets' to 'Small Luxury'
⌨️ #Tourism #Accommodation #Hotel #Trends
🏠 Industry Story
The Era of 20 Million Foreign Tourists: Is Your Property Attractive to Them?
The repeat-visit rate among foreign tourists to Korea is declining. More people are coming, but fewer are coming back.
In 2025, Korea welcomed a record 18.93 million foreign visitors. Yet during the same period, the repeat-visit rate fell to 54.7%—actually lower than in 2019. Some 77% of visitors still confine themselves to Seoul. In short, guests who flew all the way to Korea drawn by K-content are seeing what they came to see and not returning.
Yufuin, Japan, is a small hot-spring town of just 30,000 residents. Last year it received 1.44 million foreign tourists—a 40% increase year-on-year. It holds no extraordinary natural resources. What its ryokans sold was not simply a room. They sold something that made visitors genuinely want to come back.
What is your property selling to foreign guests right now? An English-language website and international payment options—is that truly enough? We invite you to read the full article to discover what Yufuin's ryokans were really selling, and whether your property already has the ingredients to offer the same.
💡 Hospitality Trends
Hotel Doljanchis: Shifting from 'Grand Banquets' to 'Small Luxury'
The paradigm of the doljanchi (first-birthday celebration) market is changing. In place of the traditional format—inviting dozens of guests to a large banquet hall—a trend toward intimate, premium experiences shared with close family in a private, exclusive space is spreading rapidly. This is not a passing fad; it is a structural shift driven by the convergence of low birth rates, the "gold kids" phenomenon, and SNS culture. For operators of accommodation and banquet facilities, this transformation represents both a challenge and an opportunity.
Key Data
The figures that best illustrate this shift come from Walkerhill Hotels & Resorts. In the first half of this year, doljanchi bookings at Myeongwolgwan—Walkerhill's premium Korean beef restaurant—increased 30% year-on-year. In 2024, Walkerhill converted a dining room within a separate annex of Myeongwolgwan into "Hyeondam Room," an independent private space accommodating up to 32 guests. This small-scale premium venue has been the primary driver of demand.
Two core consumer phenomena underpin this trend. The first is the "gold kids" phenomenon, in which spending is concentrated on a single child. The second is "Ten Pocket" culture, in which parents, grandparents on both sides, and extended relatives all contribute to expenditure on the child. The result is a structure in which the number of guests has decreased while per-capita spending has actually risen. The scale of the event shrinks, but investment in the quality of the experience—dining, photography, décor, attire—increases.
The number of businesses offering hanok (traditional Korean house) doljanchi venues is also growing quickly. Seoul's Korea House, Samcheongak, and Meifield Hotel Bongnae-heon; Gyeonggi Province's Adela Hanok in Yangpyeong and Ayeondang in Pangyo; and Gurume in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province are all upgrading their facilities to capture family-event demand. The range of applications for hanok spaces is expanding rapidly—from traditional wedding ceremonies and cultural experiences for foreign tourists to doljanchis, family-introduction meetings, and 60th-birthday celebrations.
Market Impact
This trend is affecting the accommodation and banquet industry in three key ways.
First, a polarization between declining large-banquet demand and rising small-scale premium demand. As the number of births falls, the overall doljanchi market will inevitably shrink. However, industry insiders note that "spending per child is increasing, so while demand for large-scale banquets will decline, the small-scale premium event market will become more segmented." In other words, the market is restructuring toward a model where multiple independent spaces for 30 guests each can generate higher revenue than a single banquet hall for 100.
Second, the space itself is becoming 'content.' As SNS sharing culture has taken hold, guests now prioritize outdoor spaces, natural light, photogenic backdrops, and independent circulation over capacity, accessibility, and price when choosing a venue. A space that stands out in a single photograph becomes a marketing asset in its own right. This mirrors precisely the trajectory seen in the hotel wedding market, where house weddings, outdoor ceremonies, and heritage-property receptions have risen to prominence.
Third, new revenue channels are opening for small and mid-sized accommodation operators with hanok or premium private spaces. Hanok guesthouses and standalone pension properties that have operated primarily as accommodation already possess the conditions to enter the small-scale family-event market. That said, weather and seasonal dependency, limited capacity, and high per-use pricing remain challenges to overcome.
Recommended Actions
We recommend that operators consider the following three steps to translate this trend into a tangible business opportunity.
Enhance the 'photogenic' qualities of your space. Identify features that can differentiate you on SNS—windows with abundant natural light, garden views, traditional architectural elements—and actively showcase them on your booking page and Instagram.
Create dedicated small-group package products. A "Family Premium Package" that bundles exclusive use of a private space for 10–30 guests with food and beverage service, a photo zone, and décor is a strategy that raises average spend while elevating guest satisfaction.
Consider partnerships with wedding and doljanchi planners or photographers. Creating an environment where guests can arrange their venue, photography, and catering in one place will differentiate you from competing facilities and generate repeat visits and word-of-mouth referrals.
Source: Hankyung - The Crowded Hotel Doljanchi Is Over… Today's Trendy Parents Choose 'Small Luxury'
⌨️ Keyword News
1️⃣ Hotel Shilla: Revenue Down, but Operating Profit Surges Sixfold
Summary: Hotel Shilla recorded operating profit of KRW 61.1 billion in Q2 2026—a 602% year-on-year increase—despite a decline in total revenue.
Details: The partial relinquishment of its Incheon Airport duty-free concession reduced total revenue by 5.2% to KRW 971.8 billion. However, a reduction in rental costs combined with a profitability-focused management strategy pushed the operating margin up 5.5 percentage points to 6.3%. The hotel and leisure segment also posted solid growth: revenue at Seoul Shilla Hotel and Jeju Shilla Hotel each rose more than 10%, while Shilla Stay revenue grew 19.7%. Peak-season demand and high occupancy rates were cited as the primary drivers. With this strategy of choosing profitability over scale proving effective, it is an opportune moment for small and mid-sized accommodation operators to review their own operating strategies—shifting focus from room count or top-line revenue toward improving profit structure.
2️⃣ Chinese Incentive Tour Groups Arriving by Cruise, Expanding to Thousands
Summary: Chinese corporate incentive tour groups are increasingly visiting Jeju, Busan, and Incheon by cruise ship; approximately 7,000 visitors arrived in June and July alone, spending around KRW 2.5 billion.
Details: A clear trend has emerged this year of Chinese corporate incentive groups visiting Korea by sea. What began in May with a group of 284 grew rapidly to a single arrival of 5,128 members from a liquor company in July. The diversion of Japan-bound demand to Korea amid Sino-Japanese diplomatic tensions is also cited as a contributing factor. However, cruise tourists typically spend only half a day to one full day at each port of call and take their meals and accommodation on board, which limits the direct benefit to local accommodation operators. Properties near port cities such as Jeju and Busan may wish to explore strategies for extending visitor dwell time—for example, through group-linked tour packages or collaboration with nearby attractions.
3️⃣ Incheon City Drives Stay-Based Tourism Through International Taekwondo Championships
Summary: Incheon City and the Incheon Tourism Organization are co-sponsoring the 2026 Incheon Songdo International Taekwondo Championships to promote extended-stay tourism among approximately 2,500 foreign visitors from 24 countries.
Details: The championships, to be held at Seonhak Gymnasium on the 26th, will draw approximately 2,500 participants including 500 overseas athletes—a significant increase in international participation compared to the previous year. Foreign participants are expected to stay in Incheon for a minimum of three nights and four days, and up to seven nights and eight days, experiencing local attractions such as the Open Port District, Chinatown, and Wolmido. The Incheon Tourism Organization will support extended stays through accommodation information services and city tour tie-in programs. Accommodation operators in the Incheon area should anticipate concentrated demand from international group guests and are advised to prepare multilingual guest information materials and review their group reservation handling procedures in advance.
4️⃣ Japan and Macau Expand Casino Integrated Resorts While Korea Remains Mired in Regulatory Disputes
Summary: As competition for Northeast Asian tourism intensifies, Japan and Macau are pouring investment into large-scale casino integrated resorts, while Korea remains stalled amid industry-government conflict over license renewal requirements and increased levy rates.
Details: Japan is constructing an integrated resort on Osaka's Yumeshima island at a cost of approximately KRW 13.7 trillion, incorporating a casino, hotel, exhibition center, and performance venue, with a target of attracting 20 million visitors annually after its projected 2030 opening. Macau has secured investment commitments of approximately KRW 21 trillion from its six casino operators, broadening its visitor base by absorbing non-gaming demand in family, cultural, and MICE tourism. Korea, by contrast, continues to see delays in competitiveness discussions due to ongoing regulatory disputes between the casino industry and the government. As the race for Northeast Asian tourism dominance accelerates, accommodation operators who depend on inbound foreign visitor demand should proactively prepare for potential shifts in Korea-bound travel following the opening of integrated resorts in neighboring countries.
5️⃣ Casino Levy Controversy: Tourism Industry and Ministry of Culture in Direct Confrontation
Summary: Twelve tourism-related associations have called for the withdrawal of proposed increases to the casino Tourism Promotion Development Fund levy rate and the introduction of a license renewal system, prompting the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to issue an immediate rebuttal on the same day—escalating the conflict.
Details: On August 3rd, twelve tourism-related organizations—including the Korea Hotel Association and the Korea Tourism Association—issued a joint statement opposing two proposed measures: raising the ceiling on casino operators' Tourism Promotion Development Fund contribution rate from the current 10% to 15%, and introducing a five-year license renewal system. The industry argued that levying the fund on a revenue basis places an excessive burden on loss-making operators, citing that approximately half of domestic casino operators had reported operating losses over the past decade. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism countered that revenue-based levies are standard practice in major jurisdictions including the United States, Singapore, and Macau. The controversy is expanding beyond the casino sector to encompass the broader structure of tourism fund financing and overall industry competitiveness. Accommodation operators should monitor how changes to Tourism Promotion Development Fund policy may affect the industry as a whole.
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