[Life Chapter 3 Companies] Babaground Providing 'Play Opportunities' for Middle-Aged Women

Experience-Based Travel Programs Offered for Middle-Aged and Older Women

CEO Heo Jeong of Babaground, operating the travel platform "Noneunbeop" for middle-aged and older adults. Photo by Heo Younghan younghan@

“Why do middle-aged Koreans only travel in package tours?”

Heo Jeong, CEO of Babaground and operator of the platform ‘Noneunbeop’ that provides experiential travel content for middle-aged women, couldn’t get this question out of her mind whenever she visited travel destinations around the world. Foreign seniors she met abroad often traveled simply with friends. Korean seniors were different. Most of them traveled in group packages organized by travel agencies or with their families.

She was puzzled throughout her travels. After observation and reflection, she reached a conclusion: “Perhaps middle-aged Koreans lack opportunities and information to travel simply with peers.” She believed that if seniors could access fresh and healthy travel content and opportunities, their travel culture would change somewhat. Thus, she decided to provide opportunities for seniors to travel ‘in groups’ as well. Targeting senior women, she planned the experiential travel program service ‘Noneunbeop’ starting in 2019. However, due to the pandemic, the full-scale service began only in 2022.

Asia Economy met CEO Heo Jeong on the 12th. Her background is unique. She started her career as a developer at a venture company with about 20 employees, then worked as a flight attendant for Korean Air. She explained her career change from developer to flight attendant by saying, “I was thirsty for a job where I could meet people around the world rather than sitting at a desk.” However, contrary to expectations, being a flight attendant was also quite a static job. After much thought, she chose to resign at age 30. She embarked on a ‘self-discovery’ journey through world travel. Traveling alone aimlessly for about 10 months, she pondered what she truly wanted. The conclusion was ‘travel.’ She started a business to provide good travel content and programs for seniors she met during her travels.

‘Noneunbeop’ is, as the name suggests, a startup that provides ways for middle-aged and senior women to enjoy themselves. Collaborating with local communities, it helps peers enjoy fun experiential activities together. Currently, it offers about 80 programs. Half are experiential travel contents in rural areas, and the other half are short programs that can be enjoyed in urban settings. Although it is still a startup with only five employees, it was selected as one of the ‘Top 10 Themed Travels’ by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, generating transactions worth about 20 million KRW just two months after starting the business. This led to a focused exploration of the potential of travel content in collaboration with farms.

- What inspired you to conceive the travel platform ‘Noneunbeop’ for middle-aged women?

▲ I worked as a cabin crew member at Korean Air. It was an environment where I could meet many travelers. After resigning, I backpacked for about 10 months. During that time, I saw many foreign travelers from other countries. There were many seniors. Korean seniors were different. In Korea, seniors rarely travel together. They either travel in groups through travel agencies or with their children.

Why is that? Why is it so different? I wondered. Perhaps Korean seniors have not learned how to enjoy themselves. I wanted to solve this as a business. Especially spending more time with my mother who had retired, this thought became stronger. I once made something like a ‘tteok cake’ that was popular on SNS for my mother. I thought seniors wouldn’t like it, but she enjoyed it very much. I believed that if seniors had enough access to information about trendy cultural content, they could enjoy it fully.

Eventually, I came to the idea of creating a platform that provides ‘wellness content for active seniors.’ Since the target is seniors, I thought the keyword ‘health’ could not be overlooked. I started the business with the ambition to provide content, spaces, and opportunities where they can enjoy themselves healthily.

- I understand ‘Noneunbeop’ offers travel products. How is it different from other travel platforms?

▲ It is meaningless to just provide travel products targeting seniors like other travel and leisure platforms. We do not simply offer travel products. The core is providing experiential programs in cooperation with local farms.

- How do you collaborate?

▲ We work with the Rural Development Administration to discover farms that can provide substantial experiential content. We strive to make travelers feel well-treated during their stay at the farms. Meals are very important for this, so we pay special attention to offering healthy meals made from local specialties. Specifically, when female guests come, they can follow set programs during a 1-night, 2-day trip and enjoy farm breakfasts or healthy dinners. The themes vary depending on the programs each farm offers. Some offer pottery-making programs, others fabric dyeing. It depends on how the program is structured.

- But isn’t it also necessary for men to learn ‘Noneunbeop’?

▲ However, all planning is tailored to women. Especially for lodging products, men are structurally prevented from paying and participating in the programs. This is a practical concern. When we first launched this service, we faced various misunderstandings. There was concern that providing special travel experiential content for seniors could become a service for ‘affairs.’ (In reality) communities where male and female seniors gather have often been distorted in that way. Therefore, if male and female traveler teams participate in the same program, it is difficult to avoid such risks. We thought it was important to prevent uncomfortable experiences for travelers who come to ‘enjoy themselves’ meaningfully with friends and acquaintances. We place great importance on creating a safe environment for them.

- How do you plan travel programs?

▲ Local governments and the Rural Development Administration select places with good infrastructure and culture but underutilized as tourist programs and share them with us. There were limits to discovering good program providers by visiting farms ourselves every time, but after a few successful products, this process has been established.

- Do you have any future vision or plans?

▲ In the future, I want to directly operate a wellness center for solo female travelers. We plan to create a guesthouse-style wellness center exclusively for middle-aged female travelers, where we will provide various programs ourselves. We want to operate a lodging space that can form a safer community by offering healthy breakfasts, walking programs, and other content.