Summer, the full-fledged holiday season, is approaching. Although it is a recurring summer every year, this summer is perfect for travelers and the travel industry. This is because the sky road, which has been blocked by the pandemic for two years, will be opened quite a lot from this summer. Those who have decided to travel freely at home and abroad are now excited to visit global online travel agency (OTA) sites such as Expedia, Hotels Dotcom, Orbitz, and Tribago. Travelers compare prices on sites and book the lowest-priced flights, hotels, and rental cars. It is now a rite of passage for free travel preparation that has become natural for us.
It was the first generation of OTA and Expedia Group listed on the NASDAQ market that settled this free travel preparation process for travelers. Expedia Group is the world’s largest OTA company with the previous sites and has entered more than 70 countries around the world. Expedia Group also has a platform to book more than 3 million hotels and 500 airlines around the world. It also entered South Korea in 2011 and led the domestic OTA market. “Economy Chosun” held a written interview on May 18 with Catherine So, executive director of the Asia-Pacific region of Expedia Group, which marks the 14th anniversary of its entry into Korea this year. The following is excerpts from the interview with Alperovitch.
The long pandemic is coming to an end. How did you overcome the pandemic?
The pandemic was an opportunity to practice the ever-changing emotions of travel. It quickly responded to the needs of travelers by adapting quickly. Overseas travel was greatly restricted during the pandemic, but instead we focused on domestic travel. As part of these activities, Hotel Dotcom launched a workation campaign in December last year that combines work and vacation. As such, we tried to make ‘travel’ a priority for consumers during the pandemic. This is also a factor that allowed the travel industry to win and win each other.”
Korea and other Asian countries are gradually easing quarantine. The opportunity is coming.
Confidence in travel demand is growing in the travel industry. We see the possibility that future travel demand can grow. According to a recent global travel trend survey conducted by Expedia Group, many travelers in the Asia-Pacific region are willing to go on a “big trip” on their next trip. Seventy-nine percent of South Korean travelers agreed. According to hotel dotcom data, overseas travel searches among Korean travelers in May this year increased by 455% compared to last year. The top five most searched travel destinations were the United States, France, Thailand, Guam, and Vietnam.
In addition, we paid attention to the phenomenon of ‘social exchange drought’. In a survey conducted in December last year, 71 percent of the respondents said that “social exchanges have decreased significantly compared to before the pandemic,” and 40 percent of the respondents said they were “willing to travel to make new friends.” In fact, hotels in the form of providing public spaces for social exchanges are gaining popularity. Among the various accommodations in Korea, the guest house seems to be a suitable place to make new friends.”
It has been 14 years since Expedia landed in Korea. What is the characteristic of the Korean market?
I am very happy that this year marks the 14th anniversary of Hotel Dotcom’s landing in Korea. Korea is a really unique market that has grown with us. Korean tourists are always looking for something fun, interesting, and different. According to a survey on Expedia’s global travel trends in September last year, Korean travelers cited “experience new things and places” as the top priority (42%) when asked about their most anticipated travel experiences. In the same question, only 34% of travelers from Japan, a neighboring country in the Asia-Pacific region, responded like this. It was also followed by “Trying new dishes or visiting restaurants (38% of Koreans, 29% of Japanese), “Trying things you never do (21% of Koreans, 19% of Japanese),” and “Exchanging with people with different cultures or backgrounds” (19% of Koreans and 12% of Japanese).
In addition, we found that Korean travelers have a sophisticated eye. Korean travelers prefer luxury and luxury hotels the most. According to an in-group survey, Korean travelers are lavish in spending at luxury accommodations such as hotels with spa or hot spring facilities or five-star hotels. This was also confirmed in the results of Hotel Dotcom’s search for “five-star hotels” filters in May this year, up 93% from the previous month.”
What is the possibility of Korean market growth after the pandemic?
Koreans are always passionate about traveling. We expect the Korean market to grow further after the pandemic. The demand for travel, especially overseas travel, will grow due to the pent-up travel desire. According to a recent global travel trend survey conducted by us, 61 percent of Korean respondents said they reduced the number of trips by at least 50 percent, and 27 percent said they had never traveled since the country since the pandemic. Seventy-nine percent of Korean respondents said their next trip will be “big,” predicting that the wave of retaliatory travel will fluctuate. On the other hand, about 59 percent of Japanese travelers answered the same question. In addition, 30% of Korean respondents said they wanted to go on a long-term trip to experience and enjoy the travel destination as much as possible. Only 21% of the respondents expressed similar intentions.”
What is the travel trend in the post-COVID-19 era?
First of all, as travel restrictions are gradually eased, we are looking at the overseas travel sector positively. However, as the data on post-COVID-19 overseas travel is not yet sufficient, four trends have been prominent from the perspective of domestic travel. It’s a wellness trip and a work trip. And luxury travel is also noteworthy. We believe that travelers’ pent-up desire to travel will be expressed as a phenomenon of willingness to pay more. According to the actual internal data, demand for 4-5 star hotels increased by 5% in the first quarter of this year compared to the first quarter of last year. Impromptu travel is also a major trend. It was found that consumers go on short-term and voluntary trips more often in the past year or two than before the pandemic. One of the most popular services the travel industry could offer at this time was ‘cancellation of free accommodation.'”
Recently, there have been many promising OTA’s in each country. Is there a strategy to survive the competition?
“Expedia Group has one of the world’s largest royalty platforms, which I think will be competitive. It will introduce a new integrated loyalty program called One Key, which combines four different loyalty programs under our company (Expedia Reward, Hotel’s Dotcom Reward, Orbitz Reward, and eBookers Bonus). In addition, we announced ‘Expedia Group ™ Open World’ in early May in time for the post-COVID-19 period. It is a new technology platform designed specifically to enable all partners to configure the products and services needed to succeed in the travel ecosystem. It provides an e-commerce suite that includes components such as payments, conversations, and services. This allows anyone to enter the travel business. For example, if an airline wants to implement a service that provides rental cars to travelers, it can implement related services through Expedia Group’s Open World platform.”