South Korea Teams Up with Klook and KTO, Uniting Forces to Boost Regional Tourism and AI-Powered Travel Services

Written By: Prajna Ganguly

Prajna Ganguly

I am a Communication and MarCom Specialist at Travel And Tour World, driven by a passion for researching, writing, and publishing content on the global travel and tourism industry. I specialize in turning industry developments, destination stories, tourism trends, and hospitality insights into engaging, reader-focused content. With a background in media relations, brand positioning, and managing over 200 global partnerships, I bring a deep understanding of the travel ecosystem. My goal is to build a career at the intersection of travel journalism, tourism publishing, strategic communication, and destination storytelling.

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July 16, 2026 18:35 GMT+5:30

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Klook and the Korea Tourism Organization have entered a renewed two-year partnership aimed at making South Korea’s regional destinations easier for international travellers to discover, plan and book.The new memorandum of understanding places digital distribution, regional tourism, independent travel and artificial intelligence at the centre of the cooperation. It comes as South Korea records strong growth in overseas arrivals and looks for ways to distribute more visitors and tourism spending beyond Seoul.Under the agreement, Klook and KTO will work with tourism businesses to bring more Korean experiences onto digital platforms, strengthen the international visibility of lesser-known destinations and develop campaigns for free independent travellers. The partners also intend to use traveller data and AI-supported services to improve trip planning and support more sustainable destination management.The initiative closely matches KTO’s wider strategy of pursuing 30 million international visitors, expanding regional tourism content, improving travel convenience and introducing AI transformation across the inbound tourism industry.

Partnership Places Regional Tourism at the Centre

A major objective of the two-year programme is to help travellers build itineraries that extend beyond South Korea’s best-known capital-city attractions.While Seoul will remain the country’s principal international gateway, the partnership is designed to improve the digital visibility of coastal cities, islands, heritage areas, festival destinations and rural communities. Local tours, cultural workshops, food experiences, transport products and attraction tickets could be packaged and presented to travellers before they arrive in the country.For smaller tourism operators, digital participation can be as important as international promotion. A local experience may have strong visitor appeal but remain difficult to purchase because it lacks multilingual information, overseas payment options, instant confirmation or mobile ticketing.The Klook-KTO programme is expected to address these barriers by helping tourism businesses adapt products for international distribution. In practical terms, that could mean clearer booking information, multilingual listings, digital vouchers, improved inventory management and better access to overseas customer demand.KTO’s official regional tourism strategy also prioritises destination-specific content, stay-based travel, sustainable regional tourism systems and stronger benefits for local communities.

Latest Government Data Shows Strong Inbound Growth

The agreement arrives during a period of record momentum for South Korea’s visitor economy.South Korea passed 10 million international arrivals by June 20, 2026, reaching the milestone approximately one month earlier than in 2025. During May alone, the country welcomed 1.95 million foreign visitors, an increase of 19.4% from the same month a year earlier.International arrivals reached 8.72 million during the first five months of 2026, up 21% from 7.21 million in the corresponding period of 2025.China remained the largest inbound market in May with approximately 560,000 visitors, followed by Japan with 360,000. Taiwan contributed about 190,000 visitors, while Hong Kong accounted for 60,000. The combined United States and European long-haul markets generated approximately 360,000 arrivals. The growth follows a record 18.94 million international arrivals in 2025. South Korea’s tourism exports also reached an official high of US$27.2 billion, while foreign card spending in the country totalled US$14.1 billion during the year. These figures give the Klook-KTO partnership a wider economic role. Its success will not be measured only by the number of people visiting Korea, but also by how long they stay, where they travel and how much tourism income reaches businesses outside the largest urban centres.

South Korea Tourism: Latest Official Data at a Glance

Regional Airports and Visitor Spending Gain Momentum

Government data indicates that international tourism is already spreading more widely across South Korea.About 360,000 foreign visitors entered the country through regional airports in May 2026, representing a 32% increase from approximately 270,000 in May 2025. International visitor card spending, including online expenditure, reached an estimated 2.1222 trillion won during the month. It was the first time monthly spending had exceeded 2 trillion won since the series began in January 2018.The regional trend was also visible during the first quarter. The proportion of foreign travellers visiting destinations outside the main gateway areas increased to 34.5%, up 3.2 percentage points from a year earlier. Foreign card expenditure rose by 23%, while overall visitor satisfaction remained high at 90.8 points.Cruise tourism also supported destination dispersal. Busan, Jeju and Incheon received a combined 338 cruise calls during the first quarter, an increase of 52.9% year on year.

The data strengthens the commercial case for promoting multi-destination itineraries. Travellers who combine Seoul with an island, port city, mountain region or cultural town can generate additional demand for rail and bus travel, hotels, restaurants, guides, attractions and locally operated activities.

Independent Travellers to Receive Market-Specific Offers

The renewed partnership will place particular emphasis on free independent travellers, who generally assemble trips through separate bookings rather than purchasing a conventional escorted package.This segment requires flexible products that can be reserved individually, changed easily and accessed through mobile devices. Transport passes, admission tickets, day tours, cultural experiences and regional accommodation can therefore play a larger role in the booking journey.Klook and KTO plan to develop promotions for different origin markets instead of relying on a single campaign across all countries. A traveller from Southeast Asia, for example, may have different seasonal preferences, payment requirements and trip lengths from a visitor travelling from Japan, Europe or the United States.KTO’s official inbound strategy similarly calls for customised marketing by market, stronger links between K-culture and tourism, new regional content and improved convenience for international visitors.

AI Could Improve Planning and Destination Management

Artificial intelligence and tourism data form another major part of the agreement.KTO says its broader digital strategy includes the development of AI-ready tourism data, personalised visitor information, an integrated tourism platform and a proposed smart AI travel assistant. The organisation is also seeking to create regional smart-tourism ecosystems through cooperation with local authorities and private-sector businesses. Within the Klook partnership, these capabilities could support personalised recommendations, demand forecasting and more relevant regional itineraries. Traveller search and booking patterns may also help identify destinations or experiences gaining international interest.For destination managers, better data could assist with seasonal planning, congestion management and the distribution of visitors across different locations and times of year. For travellers, the result could be simpler trip planning and recommendations better suited to their interests, budgets and available time.

Better Transport Links Will Be Critical

Digital promotion alone will not guarantee regional tourism growth. Travellers must also be able to move conveniently between airports, railway stations, bus terminals, accommodation and attractions.South Korea has been working to improve this connectivity. The government has expanded regional air access, introduced services linking transport hubs and convened tourism and transport stakeholders to address travel barriers faced by foreign visitors.An Incheon-Jeju domestic route began operating in May 2026, while the Incheon-Gimhae route was authorised for an increase to 39 weekly services. Regional transport programmes have also included intercity buses and demand-responsive transport connecting airports, railway stations and bus terminals.Klook’s role as a digital booking and discovery platform could complement these public initiatives by placing transport and destination experiences within the same online travel-planning process.

Two-Year Programme Could Reshape How Visitors Explore Korea

The agreement gives Klook and KTO a two-year window to move beyond short-term advertising and establish a more durable digital tourism network.Important indicators will include the number of regional operators brought online, the growth of international bookings outside Seoul, visitor spending in local economies, repeat travel, average length of stay and demand during quieter periods.With South Korea welcoming international visitors at a record pace, the central tourism challenge is shifting from attracting attention to managing and distributing demand effectively.The renewed Klook-KTO partnership seeks to turn international interest in Korean culture into broader journeys across the country. Its long-term value will depend on whether regional tourism businesses gain meaningful access to global travellers and whether visitors find it genuinely easier to explore more of South Korea.