This case study explores the Korea Tourism Data Lab, which provides a variety of data sources, including 9 from the private sector and 15 from the public sector, to analyse the tourism sector. The main goal of the platform is to help establish tourism policies and make better business decisions for central and local governments, regional tourism organisations, tourism businesses, and academia. The main services include regional tourism analysis that shows how travellers behave within regions in Korea and inbound tourism analysis that analyses international visitors in Korea. Korea Tourism Data Lab provides tourism statistics and surveys as well as big data such as mobile positioning data and credit card expenditure.
The Korea Tourism Data Lab
Abstract
Korea Tourism Data Lab provides a variety of data sources, including 9 from the private sector and 15 from the public sector, to analyse the tourism sector. The main goal of the platform is to help establish tourism policies and make better business decisions for central and local governments, regional tourism organisations, tourism businesses, and academia. The main services include regional tourism analysis that shows how travellers behave within regions in Korea and inbound tourism analysis that analyses international visitors in Korea. Korea Tourism Data Lab provides tourism statistics and surveys as well as big data such as mobile positioning data and credit card expenditure. Through these efforts, the average number of monthly visitors to the site increased from 14 000 in 2021 to 114 000 in 2024, and the number of members also expanded from 12 000 in 2021 to 65 000 in 2024.
Since the launch of Korea Tourism Data Lab in February 2021, a variety of data and analysis services have been developed and shared, with citations in different media reports. Through the Korea Tourism Data Lab Contest, where the Data Lab utilisation experiences can be shared, the aim is to discover and disseminate examples of how the Data Lab is being effectively utilised in the public and private sectors. Korea Tourism Data Lab, now in its fifth year of operation, plans to improve its services to expand user participation.
Source: Korea Tourism Organisation
Prior to the launch, Korea Tourism Data Lab conducted research to define tourism big data including visitors and tourism consumption classification categories. Based on this research, Korea Tourism Data Lab opened in 2021 and is currently in operation.
Korea Tourism Data Lab provides 578 types of public and private data in the forms of visualisation and datasets, as of February 2025. Mobile network data are an essential private data source, while Korea Tourism Statistics is a vital public data source. When providing regional tourism analysis and inbound tourism analysis services, the aim is to integrate existing datasets with open data for better analysis services. Additionally, publications, such as Overseas Tourism Trend Reports produced by the Korea Tourism Organisation’s overseas offices together with Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency and others, are shared.
Source: Korea Tourism Organisation
Government funds are utilised to operate Korea Tourism Data Lab, with fixed costs of roughly USD 2.4 million incurred on average for annual maintenance and data purchases every year from 2021 to 2024. However, considering 9 245 corporate users including central and local governments, regional tourism organisations, and tourism businesses, Korea Tourism Data Lab helps reduce the costs of tourism data and analysis services. As a result, the impact on the entire tourism sector is expected to grow further.
There has been a continuous demand to understand the current status of the tourism sector and measure the marketing performance through big data, and various research has been conducted to resolve it. Korea Tourism Data Lab provides official statistics including the Korea Tourism Statistics and the Foreign Tourist Survey, as well as tourism big data. National Statistics have the advantages of having a clear purpose and providing insight into implications, but timeliness is an issue. On the other hand, big data has the advantage of timeliness. Therefore, big data is seen as a complementary tool to official statistics based on traditional methods such as surveys.
Prior to the launch of Korea Tourism Data Lab, preliminary research on ‘Establishing Tourism Big Data Analysis Guidelines’ was conducted to define visitors, tourism consumption categories. This was applied to the overall analysis in Korea Tourism Data Lab. The guidelines focus on defining tourists, more specifically visitors. In mobile positioning data, tourists mean ‘visitors’ whose purpose of visit is unknown, and there are various logics for calculating visitors. Typically, a visitor is counted when he or she comes from out of town and stays at a particular base station for more than 30 minutes.
Users are encouraged to see the tourism trends through big data rather than official figures. Big data has the advantage of providing timely insights into the current situation, but it has the limitation of not being able to measure targets with precision. For example, in the process of estimating the number of visitors, there is a possibility of overestimation or underestimation compared to the actual number. Therefore, it is advisable to use trends such as growth rates rather than absolute figures for analysis.
Surveys are regularly conducted to recognise user needs for new data and analysis services. The more sophisticated Korea Tourism Data Lab’s services became, the more diverse user needs can be met.
Korea Tourism Data Lab provides services from training on data analysis for beginners to advanced users. For example, work is done together with the Tourism Education Team on an annual basis to introduce Korea Tourism Data Lab to local governments, tourism businesses and academia, and help them solve real-work business problems using the Data Lab. For advanced users, a customised analysis environment to support in-depth data analysis is provided. In 2024, a total of 12 training programmes were provided to 235 users, achieving a satisfactory level of 4.97 out of 5.00. Table 6 shows an overview of the customised services provided in 2024.
Source: Korea Tourism Organisation
These services have resulted in, for example, a 30.5% increase in the number of visitors through targeted marketing in Jecheon City, and a 180% increase in monthly sales through the development of an alternative Surfer Beach tourist destination. A tourism start-up company named ‘Wairi’ developed a program that combines transportation and accommodation, targeting Millennials and Generation Z, resulting in a 180% increase in monthly sales. Korea Tourism Data Lab provides more analysis services and data every year, and the demand for data literacy training is increasing accordingly.
It was necessary to gather information on how tourism businesses and policymakers are using Korea Tourism Data Lab and to assess its practical usefulness. During the evaluation, the aim was to identify which data or functions needed improvement, focusing also on enhancing the capabilities of tourism businesses in utilising data and AI. To achieve these goals, the following initiatives were provided.
The aim of the annual Korea Tourism Data Lab Best Use Case Contest is to investigate how Korea Tourism Data Lab is used to solve business problems. The contest can help understand what data are most important for users, thus helping in the planning going forward. In 2024, a total of 58 teams participated in the contest, which was held for the fourth time. In the public sector, Okcheon-gun selected tourist attractions for Digital Tourist ID Card benefits through Korea Tourism Data Lab and achieved 57 000 Digital Tourist ID Cards registered. In the private sector, a tourist start-up ‘Nolowa (Come to) Gurye’ developed tour programs in seven regions by analysing popular tourist destinations and major attraction factors based on the analysis from Korea Tourism Data Lab.
The Korea Tourism Organisation held a hackathon competition for the first time in July 2023 by combining big data from Korea Tourism Data Lab and participants’ generative AI technology. This event served to support the growth of data utilisation capabilities of Korean tourism companies. A total of 456 people participated, and 52 innovative tourist service were developed. A team developed a generative AI-based tourism-specific search engine that breaks down language barriers, advanced the hackathon prototype, and succeeded in commercialising ‘Trip Builder’, an AI customised tourism recommendation solution in October 2023.
Korea Tourism Data Lab provides customised support to tourism companies. Tourism companies with high growth potential are selected and receive support to establish marketing strategies by integrating the data from Korea Tourism Data Lab with the company’s own data. 24 companies were supported in 2024, and the average KPI achievement rate across companies exceeded the overall corporate goal. The KPIs were individual to each company, depending on their goals, such as return on ad spend, app installs, customer database acquisition, or monthly active users. For "Hi-Medi", a medical tourism network service provider, the number of sales inquiries was set as the main performance indicator. Through search engine optimisation and a website revamp, it increased by 1 311% year-on-year in three major target countries.
Different events are hosted to promote Korea Tourism Data Lab and encourage user participation. Every month, the number of international tourists visiting Korea, an official statistic, is announced through Korea Tourism Data Lab, and in relation to this, an event was held to predict the total number of international tourists in 2023, which received responses from about 3 300 participants. The event attracted many new users, helping the long-term service expansion of Korea Tourism Data Lab. Work to encourage user participation further and to improve Korea Tourism Data Lab for user needs will continue.
For further information please contact:
Hyunmin Choe, Deputy Director, Korea Tourism Organisation, hmchoe0214@knto.or.kr
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