Stay-in-hotel trend for the holidays revs up luxury hotels

Luxury hotels in South Korea are enjoying the emerging trend of Koreans choosing relaxing vacations at hotels, rather than taking holidays overseas.

To meet such a demand, five-star hotels such as Hotel Shilla Co. and Josun Hotels & Resorts have launched special packages particularly for the Jan. 21-24 Lunar New Year holidays.

Up to now, 70-80% of their guest rooms have been booked for the holidays, according to industry sources on Monday.

For Lotte Hotel World, popular among families with kids, bookings for its character rooms are expected to surpass 90%. The hotel is located next to the amusement park Lotte World Adventure in southern Seoul.

Industry observers said that increased airline ticket prices have led Korean travelers to choose relaxing time at luxury hotels, rather than spending nearly 1 million won ($800) per person on international airfares.

Growing demand for laid-back holidays is expected to leave hotels less susceptible to economic cycles than other domestic sales-focused companies.

At Interpark, a leading online shopping platform in South Korea, the lowest ticket price for South Korea’s Incheon to Narita in Japan is 710,000 won as of Jan. 16. The lowest airfare for Incheon to Da Nang in Vietnam stands at 830,000 won.

Vietnam and Japan are among the most popular international destinations for South Korean travelers.

To cater to stay-in-hotel customers, Korean hotels offer breakfast, afternoon tea and a variety of other services in packages. Their sales for the Lunar New Year holidays have more than doubled, compared to the average for weekend products up to now.

Hotel Shilla will arrange wine parties for guests, who labor almost all day at home to prepare traditional family rituals for the New Year.

The special packages provided by The Westin Juson Seoul include limited-edition jewelry boxes and luxury hand creams.

Driven by holiday package sales, operating profits at Hotel Shilla were projected to more than double to 79.9 billion won last year from the year prior.

This year, eased pandemic restrictions are expected to give another boost to hotels thanks to inflows of foreign travelers.

However, duty-free sales could weigh on their sales. Last year, Hotel Shilla’s duty-free sales were estimated at 28.5 billion won, just 10.7% their 2019 level.

Write to Mi-Kyung Lee at Capital@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.