Nol Universe targets tour, activity business as new growth pillar

Yoon Min-wuk, sourcing leader of the tour and activity business at Nol Universe, speaks during a press briefing in Seoul on Wednesday. (Nol Universe)

The way Koreans plan overseas trips has shifted, with less weight on where they go and more on what they will actually experience when they get there. Nol Universe, South Korea's leading travel booking platform, is making a direct play for that change, betting on its tour and activity business as the category for its next phase of growth.

At a press briefing Wednesday, the company laid out its ambitions for its tour and activity business, referring to everything a traveler does once the flight lands and they check into their hotel. The pitch follows a straightforward travel trend: Koreans are traveling more, traveling independently and planning trips more spontaneously than ever.

"Non-package travelers now account for 80 percent of total outbound demand, and of those, between 60 and 70 percent purchase a tour or activity product," said Yoon Min-wuk, sourcing leader of the tour and activity business at Nol Universe. "Those in their 20s and 30s alone account for more than 55 percent of that demand."

The company projects the trend will only strengthen, with outbound travel having reached around 29 million trips in 2025 and expected to hit 30 million this year.

"As travelers place greater value on localized experiences unique to a specific place, Korea's mobile and digital infrastructure lets them discover and book those experiences instantly, and AI is only accelerating that," Yoon said.

For example, a Netflix drama series filmed in the coastal Japanese city of Kamakura saw its one-day tour bookings from Tokyo surging, while traditional costume and makeup experiences in Shanghai went mainstream almost overnight on the back of social media.

With transaction volume growing 158 percent in 2025 from a year earlier, Nol Universe is positioning its tour and activity business as the connective tissue of the entire travel journey.

"The moment a flight is booked, we prompt users to start planning their trip," said Olivia Hwang, head of the tour and activity business. "Through AI-powered itinerary tools and point-of-interest content, we want to organically connect everything from travel planning all the way through to the experience itself."

That ambition extends into new territory. Sports and live events have emerged as the newest frontier, with the company targeting threefold growth in its entertainment segment this year and planning to move beyond simply selling tickets into curated group tour experiences.

Product differentiation is another front. Last week, Nol Universe launched a self-branded bus tour, with operations beginning next month in Fukuoka and Sapporo, Japan, offering route combinations that did not previously exist as part of a push to make familiar destinations feel new again.

"Even on familiar routes, we want users to feel that when Nol makes a tour, there's a new highlight they haven't seen before," Hwang said.