KTO Spends 14.1 Billion Won on Overseas OTAs... Unclear Results in Attracting Foreign Tourists

401 Overseas OTA Projects Carried Out Over Five Years
Accounting for 66% of Total Korea Tourism Organization Spending
77 Billion Won Invested in Top 4 Platforms Including Klook
No Unified Metrics to Measure Project Effectiveness
Korea Tour

The Korea Tourism Organization has invested over 14.1 billion won in overseas online travel agency (OTA) partnership projects over the past five years; however, it has been found that there is no consistent standard to evaluate the effectiveness of attracting foreign visitors relative to the budget. This is because the organization recognizes a wide range of performance indicators, such as product purchases, actual users, content views, and page traffic, even though these metrics differ in nature. As the budget for overseas OTA projects is rapidly increasing, experts note the need for a system to verify whether this has actually led to an increase in inbound tourists, their length of stay, and spending.

A traveler searching for travel products on a smartphone at the airport. The Korea Tourism Organization has spent over 14.1 billion KRW on overseas online travel agency projects from 2021 to this year.

According to an analysis by The Asia Business Daily on data the Korea Tourism Organization submitted to Assemblyman Cho Gye-won of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports, and Tourism Committee, there were 401 overseas OTA projects (80.0%) out of 501 OTA-linked projects from 2021 to this year. Out of the total expenditure of 21.36042 billion won, 14.17341 billion won was allocated to overseas OTA projects, accounting for 66.4% of the total.

The related expenditure soared more than fourfold from about 1 billion won in 2021 to 4.23911 billion won last year. The budget for projects currently underway this year was not included in the expenditure. By vendor, Klook received about 2.96 billion won, making it the largest recipient, followed by Trip.com and Ctrip at about 2.57 billion won, Expedia at about 1.14 billion won, and KKday at about 1.1 billion won. Approximately 7.76 billion won was allocated to these top four platforms combined, representing 54.8% of the total overseas OTA expenditure.

Although the budget increased rapidly, the criteria for assessing results varied by project. The achievements in the OTA business agreements submitted to the National Assembly by the Korea Tourism Organization included not only the number of product purchases and actual users, but also content views, page traffic, and live broadcast viewership as performance indicators.

For the 2024 project with Chinese OTA Tongcheng, the Korea Tourism Organization reported 34,522 purchases of student travel packages to Korea, and 79.82 million promotion views as performance results. Last year, Klook’s transportation promotion counted 330,000 page visits and 12,145 passengers who used coupons as main indicators. The 2023 Airbnb China collaboration logged 20,503 sales of travel products to Korea and 24.62 million content views, while the 2021 Feizhu virtual travel package used live broadcast viewers as its performance metric.

Status of execution and performance indicators of Korea Tourism Organization's OTA-linked projects from 2021 to 2026. While the expenditure for overseas OTA-related projects amounted to 14.17341 billion KRW, accounting for 66.4% of the total, the performance metrics for each project were presented in different units, such as views, number of purchases, traffic, and number of users. Data provided by Korea Tourism Organization submitted to the National Assembly.

The problem is that so-called 'exposure indicators,' such as views and traffic, are mixed with 'action indicators,' such as product purchases and actual user numbers. This structure makes it difficult to compare which project was genuinely more effective in attracting foreign visitors with the same expenditure. In the submitted materials, there was also no universal metric to estimate ultimate outcomes, such as the number of additional inbound tourists, length of stay, or increased tourism spending.

Overseas OTAs are an essential marketing channel for attracting foreign visitors. According to the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, 82.6% of inbound visitors to Korea in 2023 used an OTA before their trip. In other words, global OTAs have become the primary channel for both the sale and promotion of trips to Korea.

The Korea Tourism Organization also explains that using global OTAs is a practical tool to increase foreign visitor attraction. A Korea Tourism Organization official said, "Given the characteristics of overseas marketing, which require maximizing the effect of attracting foreign visitors with limited funds, it is effective to utilize global OTAs that have high local usage rates and accessibility among consumers." The official added, "Rather than simply allocating budgets by platform, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the characteristics and reach of each channel, as well as the actual effect on generating inbound tourists when developing marketing strategies."

While experts agree on the need to use OTAs, they point out that project evaluations should focus on generating real tourism demand. Shin Hakseung, a professor of tourism at Hanyang University, said, "Because global OTAs have strong overseas brand awareness, customer bases, and marketing impact—and as a large number of inbound visitors actually use them—it is virtually impossible to exclude them in practice. Exposure and reservation counts reflect the level of engagement on those platforms." He emphasized, "Ultimately, evaluations should focus on whether payments made via OTAs led to additional inbound visitors, longer stays, a higher ratio of overnight tourists, and increased tourism spending."

Korea Tourism Organization headquarters building in Wonju, Gangwon Province. Korea Tourism Organization

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.