hankyoreh

Tourists from Italy laugh as they chat during their outing to Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul’s Jongno District. (Kim Young-won/Hankyoreh)

“The DMZ tour was the most meaningful part of my trip to Korea. It was astonishing to directly experience the reality of living in a divided nation.” These are the words of Angela McKinley, a woman in her 30s who recently visited Korea with her mother. McKinley, who is from the US, said she chose to travel to Korea in hopes of comforting her mother after her grandmother had passed away. But her moving experience in Korea didn’t just end at the DMZ. 

“I was fascinated by the artworks at the artist Kim Young-jun’s gallery, but I’ll never forget the experience of making a jewelry box with the artist,” she said. The gallery, in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, is run by Kim, an artist in his 60s who specializes in the traditional handicraft technique of decorating lacquerware with vibrant mother-of-pearl. Kim fell in love with the craft later in life, and pivoted from a career in finance to dedicate himself to najeonchilgi. Eventually, he became an accomplished artist who even held exhibitions abroad in the mid-2000s.

McKinley also mentioned plans to visit Korea again in November. Sharing that she hoped to take pictures at Gyeongbok Palace wearing traditional hanbok, McKinley said, “Each region of Korea has its own charms, so I’d like to visit often.”

A hanbok rental studio near Seoul’s Gyeongbok Palaces bustles with foreign tourists. (Yoon Woon-sik/Hankyoreh)

McKinley’s story is illustrative of the changing travel patterns of foreigners visiting Korea in recent years. A tourist will no longer simply visit a few palaces, eat a bowl of samgyetang chicken soup and call it a day. Riding the wave of interest in Korean culture thanks to the popularity of the Netflix animated film “KPop Demon Hunters,” Korea is transforming into a destination for a wide array of tourist experiences. Korean makeup workshops, traditional liquor-making classes, gourmet Korean cuisine tours, medical tourism, ink painting classes, and traditional hanok architecture tours are just a few of the diverse experiences Korea now offers its visitors. Among these, “virtuoso tours” are highlighted as the most promising form of tourism in Korea.

To be a “virtuoso” means to be a “master” or “outstanding practitioner.” In the travel industry, this term is used as a qualifier, used in programs titled “virtuoso tours” that are also called “luxury” or “premium” packages. The tourism industry views such programs as its fastest-growing sector in recent years. Domestic travel agencies like Hanatour launched premium bespoke travel brands such as Zeus and Hana Pack 2.0 early on.

These travel packages are structured around luxury accommodations, itineraries with lots of free time to do as you may, and striking experiences, with a minimum of group shopping activities. One might predict that the trips are all about expensive frills, but this is not the case.

Foreign tourists explore the Imjingak area near the DMZ in Paju, South Korea, on Oct. 16, 2024. (Hankyoreh file photo)

The key element of luxury tourism is distinctiveness: trips center on authentic experiences that can only be had in a particular country. This is a reflection of a recent global trend where some people base their travel choices on running, others on painting, and others on hiking. One might go so far as to say there seem to be as many different ways of traveling today as there are people in the world.

Examples in Korea include temple stays, climbing on Mount Seorak, experiencing acupuncture at a Korean medicine clinic, enjoying Jeju’s cuisine, and having instant noodles by the Han River.

Industry observers are commenting that the growing number of overseas luxury travelers are willing to shell out millions of won in activity costs as long as they find them rewarding. The trend is borne out by Korea Tourism Organization figures.

In 2023, an estimated 180,000 luxury travelers visited Korea from overseas. The top one percent of them were found to have spent at least 20 million won each on average, or close to US$14,500.

According to the 2023 figures from the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, luxury travelers accounted for 31.3% of total travel expenditures despite accounting for just 1.7% of travelers visiting Korea.

The situation has led different countries to work hard to court high-end travelers — a market that Korea has also entered.

Tourists stand and watch the guard-changing ceremony at Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul. (Kim Young-won/Hankyoreh)

A crucial development came when the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) succeeded in their bid for Korea to host the 2026 Virtuoso Symposium, an event held by Virtuoso, the world’s largest high-end tourism network. It is scheduled to take place in Seoul over a five-day period starting on April 15 of next year. This will be the first time the event has been hosted in Northeast Asia.

Established in 1986, Virtuoso is a network that counts around 1,200 travel agencies in 54 countries among its members, along with travel-related groups with a combined membership of over 20,000 people. Around 400 member company representatives alone are expected to attend the event next year. During the symposium, companies will experience Korea’s different forms of luxury tourism and design their own travel packages.

“Targeting Virtuoso for promotional activities is especially important when you take into account the characteristics of luxury travelers, who typically entrust their travel schedule and content to specialists,” a KTO official explained.

A couple traveling to Korea from Malaysia snap a photo at Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul. (Kim Young-won/Hankyoreh)

Industry experts said KTO’s ongoing efforts were a major factor that allowed Korea to beat out other countries that were competing to host the event.

Last year, the organization offered several fam tours to Virtuoso member companies. A total of 24 people were invited from travel agencies in the US, Canada, Germany, and other countries and member countries and from member companies in Virtuoso and Serandipians — a European-centered travel network founded in 2013 — and shown some of Korea’s major cities, including Seoul, Busan, Gyeongju and Jeju City.

In addition to visiting some of Korea’s premier art events — such as Kiaf Seoul, Frieze Seoul, and the Busan Biennale — they were also shown a tea ceremony at Busan’s Beomeo Temple, taken yachting, and offered a cultural activity involving Jeju’s haenyeo female divers. In the process, KTO shared information about travel experiences that were only available in Korea.

A total of six such visits took place in March, May, and August, as representatives and other officials from travel agencies in major countries — including the US, Mexico, the UK, France, Greece, Finland, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Brazil and Czechia — were invited for experience-based trips.
 
KTO also took part in this year’s Virtuoso Travel Week event held in Las Vegas on Aug. 9-15, where they showcased the luxurious side of tourism in Korea with the Korean cosmetics brand Tirtir and personal color consultancy Cocory Color. The event is a massive occasion, bringing over 5,000 people from over 100 countries. Last year, Tirtir was the first Korean brand to hit No. 1 in beauty sales on Amazon. Cocory uses data from 40,000-plus customers hailing from 75 countries to provide tailored personal color consultations. 

The Korea Tourism Organization’s booth at the Virtuoso Travel Week event in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Aug. 10, 2025, featured the Korean cosmetic brand Tirtir. (courtesy of KTO)

The Korea Tourism Organization’s booth at the Virtuoso Travel Week event in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Aug. 10, 2025, featured color consultations courtesy of Cocory Color. (courtesy of KTO)

But how much of an economic windfall will hosting the Virtuoso Symposium be for Korea? KTO estimates that hosting the event will bring in at least 413.5 billion won over the next five years, with at least 660 million won in PR value for Korea as well. 

It’s also seen as a golden opportunity to attract a global consumer base of approximately 58 million people with total assets coming in at around US$213 trillion.

“A growing number of travelers are beginning to recognize Korea as a luxury destination,” said Matthew Upchurch, the CEO of Virtuoso. According to Upchurch, Virtuoso’s clients have been booking accommodations in Korea this year at a rate 75% higher than in 2024 and 145% higher than in 2023. 

He also noted that reservations in Slovenia have skyrocketed 473% since it hosted the prestigious Virtuoso Chairman’s Event last year. According to data from Acumen Research and Consulting, the global luxury travel market is growing at an average of 8.4% each year and is expected to be worth around US$3.3 trillion, with the Asia Pacific region accounting for about 10% of that. 

Ban Ho-cheol, the head of the KTO’s themed tourism team, said that the Virtuoso Symposium will be a “chance to cement Korea as an up-and-coming powerhouse in the luxury travel market.”

KTO plans to create its own website, called “Luxury Korea,” to help sustain such trends. It is also actively marketing travel packages to Korea at its main overseas branches in New York, Los Angeles, Frankfurt, Paris, Toronto and Singapore. 

By Park Mee-hyang, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]