New urban running tour combines sightseeing and jogging
Korean-speaking local guides lead runners past city landmarks
South Korean travel platform MyRealTrip is launching an urban running tour called "Run Trip" in five cities simultaneously. Run Trip is the latest addition to MyOrigin, the company's private-brand tour label featuring products that MyRealTrip directly plans, vets or curates.
The new product offers regularly scheduled urban running tours in London, Paris, Barcelona, Prague and New York. Participants run routes connecting major city landmarks alongside Korean-speaking local guides, stopping at intervals to take photos and engage with local running culture and communities. The tours are open to anyone capable of a light jog and are designed to slot naturally into a travel itinerary, letting visitors experience a city's history and attractions on foot.
MyRealTrip developed the product in response to growing demand for running. According to a Gallup Korea survey, the share of respondents who said they had jogged or run within the past year rose from 23 percent in 2021 to 31 percent in 2025. Data from the Korea Tourism Data Lab showed that social media mentions related to "run trip" surged 598 percent in 2024 compared with 2021. The product is designed to connect the trend of continuing everyday running habits while traveling with a deeper urban tourism experience.
Lee Hyun-woo, chief executive of Huns Trips, who co-developed Run Trip, said the product's core idea is to experience a city deeply rather than run it quickly — to remember the Thames in London or the Seine in Paris through the body, not just the eyes. "Our goal is to build a global community of Korean runners who grow closer through the shared experience of running together in an unfamiliar city," he said.
MyOrigin, which includes Run Trip, is MyRealTrip's private-brand tour label built around the concept of "travel with a clear origin." Its flagship product, a walking tour of Naoshima — the so-called "island of art" — has seen consistently rising bookings, with more than 90 percent of open dates selling out since April.
In the six months since the brand launched, MyRealTrip has expanded the MyOrigin lineup to seven cities across six countries, adding an Egypt semi-package tour, a Paris gourmet and flower-arranging class, a Sydney wilderness hike and a Prague brewery tour, alongside the original Naoshima walking tour.
A MyRealTrip spokesperson said the company would continue to roll out experiences that travelers can book with confidence, starting with Run Trip.
terry@heraldcorp.com
