South Korea: The Next Luxury Frontier

So many places are overcrowded: Venice, Barcelona, and we must now add Kyoto to that list, as my own recent visit confirmed. But one destination remains truly undiscovered by most American and European luxury travelers — despite its global status as a cultural and culinary heavyweight. I’m talking about South Korea.

My wife Camilla and I recently returned from a one-week trip to Korea, a place that had long intrigued us but that we had never visited on a leisure trip. That made us part of a surge in visitation to the country: In 2024, South Korea welcomed more than 16 million foreign visitors, a nearly 50% increase from the previous year and nearly matching 2019 levels. While China, Japan, and Taiwan remain the major feeder markets, there has been significant growth from North America and Europe as well.

The principal reason for the trend is the outsize impact that Korean culture has had in the West: Squid Game remains Netflix’s most-watched series ever. Parasite was the first foreign-language film to win an Oscar for Best Picture. Blackpink and BTS are among the biggest selling pop acts in the world. Women around the world are obsessed with Korean beauty routines. K-food has become incredibly popular as well: In 2023, kimchi exports reached a record 42.6 million kilograms. Here in New York, there are more Korean restaurants with Michelin stars than French restaurants. This cultural “Korean wave,” or hallyu, is credited with driving huge interest in visiting the country, especially among travelers under 30.

Still, even as tourism to Japan experiences a record-breaking surge, South Korea still lags among Western luxury travelers compared to it and other Asian destinations like Thailand and Indonesia. “Hallyu is incredibly fashionable now, but we are definitely ahead of the wave in terms of inbound tourism,” says Guy Rubin of Imperial Tours, who organized our trip along with his wife and co-founder Nancy Kim. Imperial, already well regarded as a high-end DMC for China, entered the Korean market last year after noticing that the country lacked a firm that could organize selective experiences with local experts — Guy and Nancy’s specialty.

“Korea may not have a Great Wall or an Eiffel Tower, but it has everything else a luxury traveler wants: cuisine, hotels, and a host of experts in everything from music to textiles to porcelains,” says Nancy, who is Korean-American. “Korea has had a surge of appreciation for its own culture recently, so we can access a broad range of experts in various topics — food, art, crafts, dance. The engagement is more authentic because it’s really designed for locals, not the typical tourist show-and-tell.”

There are a few perceived challenges, most of them similar to those facing other global destinations: language barriers, unfamiliar cuisine, high costs, a lack of famous landmarks. In our recent experience, only a handful of those were actually an issue. I believe high-end tourism to Korea is poised for tremendous growth, with several key milestones due in the near future: the Virtuoso Symposium in Seoul next April, Virgin Atlantic’s new daily flight from Heathrow starting in summer 2026, and a Rosewood opening in The Parkside Seoul development in 2027. “Koreans are incredibly proud of the advances the country has made since the 1950s, when it had the same income levels as Ethiopia,” says Guy. “Everyone is very invested in building the country’s brand.”

Here are some of the highlights of our recent trip:

Sights & Experiences: We found South Korea as a whole to be surprisingly beautiful, with an ancient and rich culture blended with modern urbanity — not unlike Tokyo or Hong Kong. Among the highlights of our itinerary were the Jagalchi seafood market in Busan, which we toured with a chef; Gyeongju, the ancient capital that’s known as a “museum without walls” for its surfeit of historic palaces, temples, and shrines; the tea with a local nobleman and kimchi master class Guy arranged for us in Jeonju, a city known for its culinary heritage and craftsmanship; and, in Seoul, a tarot card reading. We were less impressed by the colorful but superficial Gamcheon Culture Village in Busan. On the “next time” list: more time to explore Seoul; a visit with a North Korean defector (which Nancy says is much more impactful than the touristy DMZ); and Jeju Island, whose hikes, beaches, and contemporary art museums make for nice end-of-trip R&R. 

Food: Korean cuisine is still unfamiliar to most people, but I agree with Shawna Huffman Owen, CEO of Huffman Travel in Chicago, when she told me that she was “blown away” by it — and she’s not a fan of spicy or salty foods. “The food is even better than it is in Japan,” said Shawna, who visited just a few weeks after I did, also working with Guy and Nancy. She noted that Japanese restaurants typically specialize in one thing, such as sushi or wagyu or tempura, whereas Korean restaurants offer a variety of soups, noodle dishes, and more, plus the irresistible array of small dishes called banchan that start every meal. “They were also very happy to make adjustments, unlike in Japan.” That said, she and I agreed that having a guide helped make the most of restaurant meals; translated menus are rare, and the best meals were those where we had expert guidance in ordering. If we had to recommend a single restaurant, it would be Mukjung in Seoul, run by Austin Kang, a Korean-American chef who returned to open this high-end, creative place that blends Korean flavors with global influences.

Hotels: All the hotels we stayed in were very good, though not all were five-star. The Park Hyatt Busan has the top-notch facilities you’d expect, with a Korean twist. In Gyeongju, we stayed at the small, simple Heritage Yuwa Hotel, and in Jeonju at the four-star Lahan Select. The Four Seasons Seoul has everything you might need or imagine, including a large spa and fitness center, several very good restaurants, and a speakeasy. The Rosewood opening, in a neighborhood with many upscale shops, will shine more of a light on Seoul.

Shopping: We didn’t have a lot of time to shop, but Shawna highly rated Olive Young, the Korean version of Sephora, whose multilevel flagship in Seoul has a very knowledgeable staff who can fill your bags with all matter of serums, masks, creams, and other K-beauty products. She also raved about the Shilla Duty-Free Mall, connected to the five-star Shilla Hotel in Seoul, where just about every international luxury brand has a boutique that will send your purchases to the airport for you to pick up prior to departure — no schlepping bags around or worrying about getting your receipts stamped and mailed.  

All in all, we were impressed by South Korea: the awesome beauty of the landscape, the informality and friendliness of the people. Visitors should feel completely safe and at ease here: Everyone is helpful and utterly trustworthy. The tourism infrastructure is excellent, and the guides are all very well qualified, thanks to stringent licensing requirements. The only real challenge is language: very few people speak English, so if you’re venturing out without a guide, Google Translate is your best friend. 

I see a bright future for luxury tourism in South Korea. Shawna said it best: “It’s cheaper, more flexible, and less crowded than Japan. When my clients say they want to go to Japan, I tell them they should really consider Korea as an add-on or an alternative.”