It's Not Southeast Asia or Japan... "This Domestic Destination Tops 'Late July, Early August' Summer Vacations Over Overseas Trips"

17 Percentage Point Increase in Domestic Travel Plans Compared to Last Year
Gangwon Province Ranked as the Most Popular Domestic Destination

This summer, 7 out of 10 people are planning to travel domestically for their vacation. Among domestic destinations, Gangwon Province was selected as the most popular vacation spot.

A beach in Yangyang County, Gangwon Province. Yangyang County

According to a survey conducted by Lotte Members' own research platform 'Lime' from July 8 for one week, targeting 1,900 men and women in their 20s to 60s nationwide, 52.7% responded that they would travel within Korea this summer, marking a 17 percentage point increase from last year.

Among these, the proportion of those planning domestic travel increased by 5.2 percentage points year-on-year to 74.1%. Gangwon Province ranked first as the top domestic travel destination, the same as last year, with 18.1%. Although the proportion of respondents choosing Gangwon Province decreased by 7.8 percentage points compared to last year, it still surpassed Jeju Island (17.3%) and Busan (12.2%). However, among respondents in their 20s and 30s, Jeju Island was the most popular domestic summer vacation destination this year, with Gangwon Province coming in second.

The proportion of respondents planning to travel abroad was 25.9%, a decrease of 5.2 percentage points from last year. For overseas travel, responses for Southeast Asia (30.8%) and Japan (30.4%) were similar. A significant number of people also planned to travel to Europe (14.6%).

The most anticipated vacation periods were the last week of July (29.1%) and the first week of August (22.5%), with the majority concentrated in the so-called 'end of July and beginning of August.' For expected per-person spending, including accommodation and transportation, the most common range for domestic trips was 500,000 to 1,000,000 KRW (36.8%), while for overseas trips it was 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 KRW (27.7%).

Demembers' Own Research Platform 'Lime'

When selecting a summer vacation destination, respondents considered sightseeing and activities (54.8%) and food (48.8%) to be more important than cost (41.7%).

30.9% of respondents said they would not take a vacation, and 16.4% said they would take time off but not travel. Among those who had no plans for a summer vacation this year, the reasons cited were 'the economic burden is too great (42.3%),' 'it seems there will be too many people because it is peak season (29.4%),' and 'I do not feel a strong reason to take a vacation (22.9%),' among others.

Respondents said they planned to use the money saved from not taking a vacation for living expenses (37.4%), savings or deposits (15.3%), and stock investments (6.8%).

'Lime' is Lotte Group's proprietary research platform that analyzes data by combining customer transaction data from L.Point, the group's integrated membership service with 43 million members, and survey data.