Jeju tops global car rental bookings as self-drive travel surges

Self-drive travel — where visitors get behind the wheel to explore destinations at their own pace — is taking hold both in Korea and abroad, with rising car rental demand pushing foreign tourists beyond major cities and into smaller regional towns.

According to global travel platform Trip.com, worldwide car rental bookings for the 12 months through July jumped 81 percent compared with the same period a year earlier.

By country, Japan led all destinations with a 119 percent year-on-year increase in bookings. Korea followed with a 148 percent surge, while Australia rose 74 percent, Thailand 59 percent and the United States 54 percent.

At the city level, Jeju claimed the top spot globally for car rental reservations, with bookings up 148 percent from a year earlier. Major Japanese cities rounded out the top five — Tokyo (up 156 percent), Sapporo (up 129 percent), Fukuoka (up 88 percent), Okinawa (up 87 percent).

Foreign tourists renting cars inside Korea also rose sharply, up 154 percent year on year. By market, Australia posted the steepest increase at 333 percent, followed by Thailand (295 percent), Taiwan (289 percent), Malaysia (281 percent), Singapore (249 percent), Japan (179 percent) and Hong Kong (171 percent). The trend suggests that visitors who once confined their itineraries to the Greater Seoul area are now fanning out to regional destinations by car.

Domestic car rental bookings by Korean travelers through Trip.com jumped 194 percent year on year. Jeju led the list of top booking cities, followed by Seoul, Busan, Yeosu, Gangneung and Gyeongju — a pattern that reflects a growing preference for arriving at a hub city by train or other public transit and then renting a vehicle to explore nearby smaller towns.

For Korean travelers renting cars abroad, Japan was the most popular destination, followed by Korea itself, the United States, Thailand, Canada and Italy. All top-10 destinations recorded year-on-year booking growth of more than 100 percent, though Korea and Japan together accounted for more than half of all reservations. By vehicle type, passenger cars seating five or fewer — suited for city driving and short trips — made up about 80 percent of bookings.

"Car rental travel is becoming a new travel trend that goes beyond simple transportation, allowing people to discover the appeal of a destination at their own pace," said Hong Jong-min, Trip.com's Korea country manager. "We will continue to strengthen our service so that foreign tourists visiting Korea can venture further into regional areas, and so that Korean travelers can enjoy car rental trips at home and abroad with confidence, through transparent pricing and a simple booking system."