Ep 79: South Korea Emerges As Asia's Most Exciting Travel Market, with Dr Jaeyeon Choe

Listen to this episode

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Google

Podbean

View All Episodes

About This Episode

30 Jun 2021 • 38m00s

While most Asian borders remain locked, South Koreans are heading off on summer holidays to European destinations. They are also booking ahead for Lunar New Year 2022. So what are the reasons behind this unexpected renaissance in one of Asia’s largest outbound travel markets?

This week, Gary and Hannah welcome Dr Jaeyeon Choe, Visiting Professor at the School of Hospitality & Tourism at Hue University, Vietnam, and a sustainable tourism consultant for Insita Bali, Indonesia.

Jaeyeon discusses recent innovations in domestic tourism, including “one-month stay” packages, camping and outdoor cooking tutorials. Now, with an accelerating vaccination rate, Koreans are eager to travel overseas once more.

Ordinarily, this time of year would see large numbers of summer vacationers flying to South East Asian destinations, so will ASEAN’s allure remain in future? [Spoiler Alert: Vietnam and the Philippines are hot picks.] We also talk about innovative booking trends, such as flexible packages and gamified TV travel promotions, an ongoing travel agency revival - and the rekindled passion for travel among Korean honeymooners.

Show notes

Dr Jaeyeon Choe’s LinkedIn profile here.

« Next Episode Ep 80: June in Review: Delta Variant Derails Tourism Planning Previous Episode » Ep 78: Preparing Hotels for a New Travel Era, with The Phuket & Bali Hotel Associations

View All Episodes

Latest Episodes Catch up with the pods you may have missed

Play

5 Jun 2026 • 19m50s

Ep 306: Will El Niño be the Next Major Travel Shock?: Start the Weekend with The South East Asia Travel Show

As we accelerate towards the mid-point of 2026, the warning signs continuing showing up. On our Start the Weekend show, Gary and Hannah discuss new data analysis about the impacts of airline cuts in South East Asia - and what this might mean through October and beyond. And, then… El Niño is coming! The UN Meteorological Office has issued new details about the warming sea temperatures and shifting air currents we can expect from June onwards.

Play

29 May 2026 • 30m21s

Ep 305: Flight Cuts & Currency Drops, More Indian Tourists Head to Vietnam & Is an ASEAN Jet Fuel Stockpile Realistic?: May 2026 in Review

So, the fifth month of 2026 is complete - and it was another one dominated by the impacts of the US/Israel war in Iran/Lebanon. This week, Gary and Hannah recap May’s top 8 travel takeaways from across ASEAN and beyond with stopovers in Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Cambodia, plus China, India and the UK. En route, we discuss flight route cuts across South East Asia, China, Japan and South Korea, and look at whether plans for an ASEAN reserve stockpile of crude oil would ease future jet fuel shocks.