New Travel Patterns in post-pandemic China and South Korea
A sharp shift towards domestic tourism, shorter booking lead times, and rising demand for contactless booking tools are some of the emerging trends in the post-pandemic travel landscape in China and South Korea.
These insights are based on a study by B2B accommodation provider WebBeds, following extensive research including focus groups, expert insights, interviews with travel experts, and its own in-house data.
In China, WebBeds has found that the country relied on the rebound of its large domestic tourism sector, although uncertainty is still having a major effect. Ted Zhang, co-founder and CEO of DerbySoft, revealed that the booking window has shortened to just two to three days in advance, as customers lack information on when hotels and facilities will be fully operational.
This assertion was echoed by Zhiwei Bai, vice president of brand marketing of Tongcheng Elong, who also stated that online hotel bookings have significantly increased, and that walk-ins have become almost impossible as travellers don't know if a hotel is still operational.
According to Bai, domestic airfares were "surprisingly low" this year, which enabled many migrant workers to book flights. Many trains were suspended and demand for bus tickets grew fast.
