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Young families top honeymooners in Korea market
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Posted on Jul 11 2008
Honeymooners, once the life-blood of the Korean tourism market in the Commonwealth, are now taking a backseat to young families traveling together as the primary demographic traveling here, a trend observers attribute to a larger shift in Korea’s work week.
In the early 1990s until 2000, recently married couples accounted for the bulk of the Commonwealth’s Korean visitors, according to Irene Lee, a representative of the Marianas Visitors Authority at its offices in Seoul. However, recent trends suggest that the recently implemented five-day work week in Korea is giving young families there enough time to take short trips overseas and the Commonwealth, given its proximity to Korea, has become a popular destination for these short-term jaunts.
“With the five-day work week now in Korea, the long weekends are contributing to Koreans being able to travel to short-haul destinations,” Lee said in an interview earlier this week, noting that Koreans previously worked on Saturdays in addition to keeping Monday through Friday hours. “Up until early 2000, the major market for the CNMI from Korea was the honeymooners but the trend is moving toward the young families.”
The longer weekends have meant an upswing in foreign travel overall for Korea throughout the year, she added.
“Before, it used to be only summer vacation season that Koreans traveled abroad,” said Lee. “Now we’re seeing that it’s not only that season but over the year.”
The trend comes as MVA officials are noting a recent 35 percent jump in Korean tourism, a rise likely to continue with Asiana Airlines poised to increase airline services to the Commonwealth.
MVA board chair Jerry Tan in an interview this week said much of the recent growth in the Korean tourism market is due to Asiana, which has invested heavily in a hotel construction project at Lau-Lau Bay.
Asiana, he noted, has already introduced eight new flights to Saipan within the last year. “It’s very exciting that we’re getting this boost,” he said.
