S. Korea to overhaul highway rest stops plagued by high prices, poor service

South Korea's highway rest stops, long criticized for overpriced and mediocre food, are set for a sweeping overhaul. Convenience stores inside the facilities will be able to run buy-one-get-one promotions and offer telecom loyalty points, and budget coffee brands will be allowed to open alongside premium chains.

Rest stops in Yeoju, Gunwi, Jangyu, Daecheon, Hapcheonho and Wolchulsan are scheduled to debut these services starting in December.

The changes stem from a shift away from the current multi-tier structure — in which Korea Expressway Corporation licenses intermediate operators who in turn sublet space to vendors — toward a system of direct contracts between a dedicated public management company and individual vendors. Once the public management company is established next year, highway rest stops nationwide are expected to be transformed into destinations drivers actually want to stop at.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the restructuring plan Thursday, framing it as a fundamental fix for the chronic problems of high food prices and substandard service at highway rest stops.

The ministry said the root cause of inflated prices has been the multi-tier structure linking Korea Expressway Corporation, intermediate operators and vendors. High commission rates siphoned off along the way have passed the cost directly onto the public, it said. Commission rates averaged 33 percent of sales and reached as high as 51 percent. The toll on consumers was evident in a 2024 road satisfaction survey, in which 66.9 percent of respondents said rest stop food was too expensive.

Particularly troubling, the ministry said, was a structural problem in which an association of Korea Expressway Corporation retirees used subsidiaries to monopolize rest stop operations for as long as four decades, pocketing the profits.

To break that cycle and bring rest stops in line with public expectations, the ministry will shift to a model in which a professional public management company contracts directly with vendors. The public management company is set to be established in early 2027.

Under the new arrangement, average rent for vendors will be cut sharply to around 8 to 9 percent of sales. Even after management fees, commissions will fall by more than half compared with current levels. With the intermediate layer eliminated, vendors will be able to set reasonable prices, and the savings — combined with better service — will flow back to the public, the ministry said.

The public management company will also revise its vendor selection criteria, prioritizing operators that can guarantee quality food and service at affordable prices rather than those simply offering the highest rent.

To ensure fairness in the bidding process, vendors will be selected through an external review committee, and annual performance evaluations will be conducted to maintain service quality.

Youth stores designed to incubate early-stage entrepreneurs will be introduced at high-traffic rest stops. Additional revenue from solar power generation and other sources will be channeled into improving rest stop facilities and creating a more comfortable environment.

Under the new system, convenience stores inside rest stops will operate around the clock and offer expanded benefits such as buy-one-get-one deals and telecom loyalty point accumulation. Budget coffee shops, previously priced out by high rents, will be able to enter the market — bringing the average price of an Americano down from 4,800 won ($3.50) to under 2,000 won.

The ministry also plans to bring in more specialty restaurant brands and locally renowned eateries to better match the tastes and preferences of travelers.

The ministry said the full overhaul will accelerate once the public management company is in place, but eight rest stops that are either newly built or have expiring contracts will be reformed ahead of schedule and begin trial operations in December. The two new facilities are the Hapcheonho rest stop on the Hamyang-Ulsan Expressway and the Wolchulsan rest stop on the Gangjin-Gwangju Expressway. The Yeoju rest stop on the Yeongdong Expressway — along with the Gunwi, Jangyu and Daecheon rest stops — will be put out to tender in July as part of the early reform push.

Alongside this, the ministry will bar current and recently retired Korea Expressway Corporation employees — those who left within the past three years — as well as their spouses and immediate family members from bidding on rest stop vendor contracts. A database of former employees will be established to strengthen monitoring of retirees.

Doseong-hoe, an association of Korea Expressway Corporation retirees, and its subsidiaries will be prohibited from participating in rest stop operations going forward. The association's bylaws will also be amended to require the sale of six rest stops currently operated through its subsidiaries by September.

The ministry added that an investigation is underway into allegations of bid rigging by Doseong-hoe subsidiaries following a ministry audit, and that it has referred allegations of tax evasion by association members to the National Tax Service for a tax probe.

"Rest stops should be a place where drivers worn out from long journeys can relax comfortably, but for decades an entrenched and irrational structure has forced the public to put up with high prices and disappointing service," Land Minister Kim Yun-deok said. "Starting with the eight rest stops opening this year, we will boldly dismantle the irrational structure and fill its place with nothing but the public's convenience — returning rest stops to the people."