

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization announced the 2025 Trend Spectrum (S.P.E.C.T.R.U.M), which contains major trends in the tourism industry in 2025.
S.P.E.C.T.R.U.M., which means “more individual and colorful travel colors,” was derived based on various analyses such as macro-environment such as society, economy, and employment, domestic and foreign tourism trends, and domestic tourism policies.
△ Efforts to establish a foundation for the tourism industry in the region △ Expansion of pet-friendly tourism △ Expansion and diversification of the Korean Wave industry △ Food travel △ Utilization of generalized AI technology △ Personalization of wellness healing travel △ Strengthening personal convenience through digital transformation △ Pursuing localism, etc. will present tourism trends in 2025.
Efforts to establish the foundation of the tourism industry in the region Sustainable Regional Tourism Efforts
In 2025, each region is expected to focus on building a foundation for the local tourism industry as a solution to the population decline problem.
Efforts to absorb these demands into local tourism are expected to be active, reflecting the trend of the increase in the digital nomad population and the continued expansion of “business + leisure travel” that combines work and leisure.
Expansion of pet-friendly tourism Pet-Friendly Tourism

The demand for travel with pets is steadily increasing. According to the “Pet Travel Status and Perception Survey” conducted by the public corporation last year, the experience of domestic accommodation travel with companion animals increased from 53% in 2022 to 60.4% in 2024.
The domestic pet market is expected to increase from $6.2 billion (about 8.5 trillion won) in 2022 to $152 (about 21 trillion won) in 2032, and the companion animal travel and related businesses are expected to expand further.
Expansion and Diversification of Hallyu Industry Expansion of Hallyu Industry
More expanded Hallyu contents such as K-pop, drama, K-literature, and K-beauty are contributing to attracting foreign tourists, with Han River’s “Vegetarian” winning Korea’s first Nobel Prize for Literature.
According to the 2023 Foreign Tourist Survey, △ after encountering △ Korean Wave contents (32.1%) and △ after encountering traditional Korean culture (31.1%) were interested in visiting Korea.
According to the Seoul Tourism Foundation, foreign tourists’ transactions in the beauty service sector last year amounted to 36.4 billion won, up 231% from 2019.
a gourmet trip Culinary & Gourmet Travel
New types of gourmet travel are attracting attention, such as gourmet contents using local local food and food trips with chefs.
Global Hotel Hilton presented gastronomic exploration as a 2025 travel trend, given that one in five travelers seek new restaurants or gastronomic experiences while traveling.
Food tourism ranked third (60.2%) among travel destinations in the 2023 National Travel Survey released in 2024, and food tourism ranked first (59.8%) and satisfied activities (60.9%) for foreigners in the 2023 Foreign Tourist Survey.
An expert survey also predicted gourmet travel as a high-ranking trend, ranking first in the possibility of expressing 2025 tourism trends and third in terms of business importance.
Utilize generalized AI technology Tech-Driven AI Advancements
With the spread of AI-based customized travel services, the number of use cases such as travel preparation, accommodation reservation, and translation services is increasing.
As a result of analyzing the travel behavior and types of Gen Z by Booking.Com, half of Gen Z respondents said they would plan a schedule through the AI travel planner before going on a trip.
The domestic and foreign tourism industry is also enabling ultra-personalized travel experiences by introducing various types of AI technologies such as recommending travel destinations and connecting reservation sites through AI.
Personalize Wellness Healing Travel Revitalizing Wellness & Healing Travel
Interest in wellness is increasing due to changed social factors such as the extension of life expectancy and strengthening of cultural consumption power of the elderly.
The Global Wellness Association predicts that the size of the international wellness tourism market will grow from $435.7 billion (about 625 trillion won) in 2020 to $1.1276 trillion (about 1,619 trillion won) in 2025.
In the future, personalized programs such as women’s health programs and digital detox are expected to become popular in wellness tourism.
Strengthen personal convenience with digital transformation Unprecedented Digital Trasnformation
The trend of digital transformation is expected to continue in 2025. Thanks to the government and companies’ efforts to establish a continuous simple payment system, the use of simple payment by foreign tourists visiting Korea has increased overall.
△Kakao Pay increased 14 times compared to the same month last year as of January 2024, △ Zero Pay increased more than 10 times compared to the same period last year.
This digital transformation in 2025 is expected to resolve travel language barriers, increase demand for simple payments, and travel technology fused with technology due to the development of real-time interpretation and translation systems.
the pursuit of localism Meaningful Local Experiences
Local tourism is expected to continue to influence in 2025. In particular, the area is expected to expand from regional-oriented experiences that experience local culture or enjoy local food to fair tourism.
Looking at Google Trend research, trends for local are constantly mentioned at the top of the world.
“S.P.E.C.T.R.U.M. has evolved from tourism trends over the past few years to present a new supplier perspective that provides products to tourists,” said Yoo Jin-ho, head of the tourism content strategy division at the corporation. “We look forward to using it as useful data to predict and prepare for trends to come to tourism industry stakeholders.”
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