Visit Finland South Korea South Korea Market Report Jani Toivanen May 2018 30.5.2018
Semiannual Report SOUTH KOREA Winter season 2017-18 and outlook for summer 2018 CONTENTS Factors affecting the results of the winter season 2017-18 Outlook for the summer season 2018 Prospects for the autumn/winter season 2018-19 Trends and other relevant travel related topics Facts and figures - Market review data
Factors affecting the results of the winter season 2017-18 Reasons for the increase/decrease in overall outbound travelling from your market? Korean outbound travel has continued it s strong growth in 2017. Nearly 26,5 million Korean departures were recorded in 2017, which is a 18.4% increase from previous year, and over 37% increase from 2015. The number of Koreans traveling abroad have already by far surpassed even the Japanese, despite the large gap in population. Koreans traveled abroad on average 2.6 times a year in 2017, with the average length of stay 5.9 days. The growth of outbound travel is expected to continue strong. Economic situation South Korea s economy grew at it s fastest pace in three years, growing by 3.1% in 2017. Consumer spending has also kept increasing (+2.6%), also growing at it s fastest pace since 2011. However, ever-increasing unemployment rate, especially among the youth raises worries for the future. Security situation 2017 saw the relationship between South and North Korea deteriorate and many threats were exchanged, especially with the US involved. However, this is considered to be nothing new and the overall security situation in Korea has continued to be very good and stable. New terrorist attacks in Europe have somewhat discouraged traveling to western Europe, but the Nordic countries are still seen as safe destinations to travel. Holiday periods and other factors - Chuseok (10 days golden holiday in October) - Winter School Holiday period (4-6 week school holidays in December-January) - Lunar New Year (4 days in February) Target groups No changes in the main target groups. FITs: younger generation (20-30 s), families with children. Package tours mainly for elderly generations.
Factors affecting the results of the winter season 2017-18 Reasons for the increase/decrease in travelling to Finland? Changes in demand Winter season saw good growth from Korean travelers and Finland was the market leader among Nordic countries in the winter season. However, the winter season still lacks far behind the summer season in overall traveler numbers as North Europe tends to be a more popular summer destination than winter. Lapland has increased it s popularity in the early winter and saw clear growth in the late 2017. FIT travel is the main growth engine, as there are not many package tours featuring Finland with overnight stays and package tours are seen more as elderly people s method of travel. Finland s image as a travel destination The Nordic countries are often seen as a single destination, rather than as individual countries, so a majority of Korean travelers tend to see all of the Nordic countries at once. Finland as an individual country is still rather unknown destination for Korean travelers, and thus often treated as a short pit stop since most travelers coming to North Europe fly with Finnair to Helsinki. Finnish design is trending, and auroras are a major attraction. Changes in distribution and accessibility Korean consumers use mobile devices heavily during their daily lives, and many travel agencies have invested heavily in developing their mobile platforms to be more user-friendly. Significant increases in mobile travel sales have helped overall travel sales to perform strongly. Especially FIT travelers are finding it easier and easier to book their trips online, even from non- Korean service providers.
Factors affecting the results of the winter season 2017-18 Reasons for the increase/decrease in travelling to Finland? Products that have been attractive City sightseeing in Helsinki continues to be the main destination for most Korean travelers to Finland. During the winter season, travelers enjoy cafes and restaurants, as well as shopping for design products. Seeing the Auroras is the main reason for visiting Lapland in winter, thus trips to see the auroras and igloo hotels attract many travelers who have more time to spend. Travelers also enjoy other unique winter activities, such as husky or reindeer sledge rides. Santa Claus village is another popular attraction. Regions that have been attractive Lapland (20%) and Helsinki (67%) continue to be the most popular destinations during winter season, with other regions still being unknown and having only few visitors. Campaigns, joint promotions results No joint campaigns or promotions took place in the winter season 2017-2018.
Outlook for the summer season 2018 The overall outlook of travelling to Finland for the coming summer? Increase/decrease and reasons for the increase/decrease Moderate to High growth expected for the summer season 2018. Travel to the Nordic region has kept a stable growth without signs of cooling down, and recently increased media visibility and word-of-mouth from previous visitors add to the growth. According to travel agencies, the booking situation shows growth compared to earlier years. Especially Finland has been visible in the media and television, but also the other Nordic countries such as Denmark and Norway have had their share of media visibility. Growing awareness towards any Nordic country ultimately benefits the whole region. New summer products Nuuksio, Turku, and Naantali summer products launched in 2018 New sales channels New travel agencies have launched Finland products for the first time (such as YB Tour), while several existing sales channels have expanded their offering (Hanatour, Modetour, Tour Baksa, etc.)
Outlook for the summer season 2018 The overall outlook of travelling to Finland for the coming summer? What are the trends for the summer 2018? Leisure travel and healing travel Escaping the summer heat in Korea Cultural city-travel (art, lifestyle, design, food) Which are the traveller segments? Main target is younger generation FIT travelers (20 s-30 s) Families with children Elderly generations for package tours (50 s-60 s)
Outlook for the summer season 2018 Ad hoc marketing opportunities TO cooperation, joint promotions, crossover, events, PR, social media Joint marketing campaigns with Korea s largest travel agency Hanatour, as well as YB Tour, both including new launched travel products Visit Finland will participate at Hanatour International Travel Show 2018, the largest travel fair in Korea in early June Visit Finland Educational Travel Seminar & Workshop to be held in late June Media FAM-trip to Finland scheduled for the summer Korean street food themed entertainment TV-program planned to be filmed in Finland during August Crossover promotion with Business Finland s Lifestyle and Food industry events, as well as events held by the Embassy of Finland in Seoul
Prospects for the autumn/winter season 2018-19 The overall outlook of travelling to Finland? What trends should be considered in product development to increase the demand in the autumn/winter time? Korean travelers tend to avoid cold countries during the winter season, but auroras are a huge attraction. Thus aurora sightseeing packages for the autumn season, which is peak season for Korean travel, rather than winter should be considered for futher development. Which present target groups should be considered to increase the demand? The main growth driver target group is the younger FIT travelers in their 20 s and 30 s Families with children are another potential group, but the possible travel times are highly limited to the school vacation periods Which new target groups should be considered to increase the demand? Honeymoon goers are an increasing trend that could have potential for Finland as well
Trends and other relevant travel related topics Trends Any new travel trends on your market? What s hot now on your market (BtoC and/or BtoB) Leisure and Healing travel became one of the most important trends in 2017 Entertainment TV-programs including travel elements (filmed abroad) gained huge popularity, leading to surge in travel to the locations where filming took place (eg. Bali, Canary Islands, Croatia) Young people traveling alone, as well as Mother-Daughter family trips abroad are becoming trendy and increased significantly New distribution channels Your suggestion on how to develop business with them: what needs to be done? Visits and sales calls, FAM-trip invite Online channels Channels where Visit Finland should be present and suggestion of how to be present Naver (SEM) Finding ways to bring Koreans to follow VF Instagram
Trends and other relevant travel related topics Competitors actions Norway Norway is actively promoting package tours to see the Fjords and Norwegian nature. Large scale marketing campaigns with large travel agencies such as Hanatour and Modetour. Active in media, mostly with the fjords as a theme. New direct flight by Asiana Airlines to Oslo launched in 2018 for summer season - travel agencies launched new packages and heavily used marketing campaigns to promote the launching. Norway promotion with Hanatour East Europe Czech and Croatia are capitalizing on the high momentum from TV exposure and are strongly trending. Especially Prague, Czech has been a popular city destination and uses themes like food and city photospots in their marketing. Naeiltour travel agency, in cooperation with Czech Tourism Organization released a coupon book for Naeiltour customers, and launched FIT travel products based on the coupon book. They also held a blogger competition with Naeiltour where 4 bloggers were selected based on applications to travel to Czech and write postings about it. Czech Blogger promotion with Naeiltour (up) & Croatia promotion with Hanatour (left)
Trends and other relevant travel related topics Competitors actions Switzerland Switzerland is the most active among all European countries for marketing and campaigns, they do marketing campaigns together with almost all major travel agencies, and are constantly visible on the main pages. They are also highly active in advertising in magazines, etc. Switzerland is taking advantage of the recent slow-life and healing travel trends, and markets their summer travel with the slogan A place to heal - the Alps, where no air pollution exists, are calling Train travel packages are one their main products. Another popular package is a road trip through Switzerland. Switzerland hosts regular info sessions for travel agencies to inform of newly opened places and new destinations. They also have sponsored travel brochure stands in the main offices of the major travel agencies. Spain Spain recently appeared on a highly popular slow life themed TV program Yoon s Restaurant, after which their tourism grew 40%. Spain has since been very active in doing marketing campaigns with travel agencies and advertising, and many travel packages to the filming location was launched. Spain also held a Year-end Appreciation Luncheon in December, inviting the CEO s of each travel agency for a lunch Swiss promotions with Hanatour and Naeiltour (up), Spain with Modetour (down)
Trends and other relevant travel related topics Free word Something else that you would like to say to the Finnish travel trade South Korea is a fast growing market with large potential for more visitors to Finland. Currently Finland is largely considered a short 1-day stopover on the way to other Nordic countries, thus the main priority is to show that Finland has offering to keep these visitors for a couple nights before continuing forward. Both the consumers and the travel trade are still unaware of what there is to do in Finland, how to promote it, and who are the local players to cooperate with.
South Korea Market review data
Korean overnights in Finland 2017 Year 2017: 51 600 (+23%) Winter (Nov-Apr): 15 300 (+11%) Summer (May-Oct): 35 800 (+34%) 8% 20% 30 70 4% 1% 3% 1% 1% 81% 1% 67% 87% Sources: Visit Finland Statistics Service Rudolf, Statistics Finland
Korean overnights in Finland Seasonal overnights in 2017-2018 Finland Winter 2017 (Dec-Feb): 8 700 (+2) Spring 2017 (Mar-May): 7 600 (+1) Summer 2017 (Jun-Aug): 22 300 (+27%) Autumn 2017 (Sep-Nov): 13 000 (+44%) Winter 2018 (Dec-Feb): 9 800 (+13%) Coast & Archipelago Winter 2017: 300 (-26%) Spring 2017: 400 (-2) Summer 2017: 1 300 (+66%) Autumn 2017: 700 (+5%) Winter 2018: 700 (+145%) Lapland Winter 2017: 2 600 (+20%) Spring 2017: 500 (+30%) Summer 2017: 400 (+129%) Autumn 2017: 1 100 (+66%) Winter 2018: 2 500 (-6%) Helsinki area Lakeland Winter 2017: 400 (-27%) Spring 2017: 400 (-10%) Summer 2017: 900 (-26%) Autumn 2017: 1 600 (+238%) Winter 2018: 900 (+121%) Winter 2017: 5 400 (+34%) Spring 2017: 6 300 (+16%) Summer 2017: 19 800 (+28%) Autumn 2017: 9 700 (+33%) Winter 2018: 5 800 (+8%) Source: Visit Finland Statistics Service Rudolf, Statistics Finland