(Bloomberg) — Honolulu-based Christine Kim was early on the KPop Demon Hunters journey development. In equity, her journey to Seoul along with her husband and children was already on the books earlier than the Netflix movie got here out in June 2025. The plan, initially at the very least, was to go to grandparents. However then Rumi, Zoey and Mira, the film’s protagonists, grew to become her 5-year-old daughter’s idols, and the itinerary bought rewritten in actual time. Once they visited a jimjilbang, or Korean spa, and the Namsan Tower, the setting for the rival Saja Boys’s ultimate present within the film, the Kims’ household journey become the final word bragging rights.
“My daughter gave the impression to be completely shocked that the locations from the film have been actual,” Kim says by way of textual content. “She was so excited, she was speechless.”
It wasn’t simply her daughter who purchased into the cultural second. “I purchased my son a black hanbok and gat (conventional clothes and hat) so he could possibly be a Saja Boy for Halloween,” Kim remembers. “And after we went to the Nike Retailer at Myeongdong, my daughter made a T-shirt with a magpie fowl on it due to the KPop Demon Hunters character.”
As of late 2025, KPop Demon Hunters remained Netflix’s most-watched authentic movie of all time with greater than 500 million views. In case you don’t have young children or someway managed to flee the phenomenon, the animated action-musical produced by Sony Footage Animation follows Huntrix, a Okay-pop woman group whose chart-topping hits assist them take down demons that threaten humanity.
If it was the essential and industrial hit that no person noticed coming, as Korean-Canadian animator Maggie Kang just lately instructed Bloomberg Information’ Mishal Husain in a prolonged interview, it’s additionally now turning into the journey catalyst that no person noticed coming. Based on information from Journey.com, within the three months after the film’s launch, international flight bookings to South Korea climbed 25% over the identical interval the 12 months earlier than, in what could possibly be the newest film-driven journey obsession. (The stats don’t tease out the motivations for journey.)
In spite of everything, Korea was already booming as a vacation spot amongst worldwide vacationers. However there are causes to imagine that KPDH has at the very least one thing to do with the spike. The broader hallyu phenomenon, additionally known as the Korean Wave, has clearly pushed the rising international recognition of Korean tradition and its connections to tourism.
Boy-band BTS has been a hallyu headliner since 2018, drawing a whole bunch of hundreds of followers to Seoul for its concert events. Greatest image winner Parasite and streaming thriller Squid Recreation performed a task after their debuts in 2019 and 2021; girl-band Blackpink has had related worldwide success. The recognition of Korean skin-care and wonder movies, consumed totally on TikTok by Technology Z, has additionally impressed loads of long-haul holidays. KPDH’s affect provides to all of that.
In July 2025, the month following the debut of the hit tune Golden on Spotify, in line with Seoul’s metropolis authorities, 1.36 million worldwide vacationers visited the capital metropolis, 23.1% greater than the 12 months earlier than. That rapid development was attributed to vacationers from China, Japan, Taiwan and the US, with the federal government saying their journeys have been “fueled by the KPop Demon Hunters craze,” a attainable reflection of how the film broke out regionally earlier than turning into a broader, worldwide phenomenon within the US and past.
This upward development continued within the following months, serving to South Korea obtain a record-breaking 18.9 million international vacationers in 2025, in line with information from the nation’s tourism board.
That tourism spike might nicely outlast the film’s preliminary burst of recognition, on condition that awards season is holding it contemporary in audiences’ minds. On Jan. 11, KPDH took residence Golden Globes within the classes of greatest animated movement image and greatest authentic tune in a movement image; it additionally received greatest tune written for visible media on the 2026 Grammys and swept the animation-centric Annie Awards with 10 out of 10 attainable wins. Now it’s closely favored to take two Oscars on March 15. On March 12, Netflix confirmed a sequel is within the works.
Contemplating that long-haul journeys take time to plan and tourism developments and statistics are sometimes revealed on a quarterly or semi-annual foundation, the ripples of KPDH’s affect within the journey sphere are simply starting to take form.
Neil Hassall, who runs the Fb group South Korea Journey Ideas and Planning says KPop Demon Hunters followers have boosted the recognition of his group in a means he hasn’t seen since at the very least Squid Recreation. In June 2025 he had 65,000 members, he says; by January 2026, that quantity had nearly doubled to 120,000.
In Seoul, Bukchon Hanok Village — the neighborhood of conventional houses the place characters Rumi and Jinu meet up for the primary time — has emerged as a must-visit vacation spot for extra than simply structure and historical past buffs. The film’s followers have helped make it the setting for one of many high trending Seoul excursions on Journey.com. Searches for the Nationwide Museum of Korea on Journey.com have additionally elevated 34% year-over-year for the reason that movie’s launch, as followers flock to the museum’s present store to purchase film merchandise.
Creatrip, a Korean journey platform that helps worldwide guests guide eating places, Okay-beauty providers and hanbok leases, has additionally benefited from the recognition of KPop Demon Hunters. Bookings for jimjilbangs and seshin providers, two forms of bathhouse scrubs seen within the film, have been up 115% in the summertime months after the film’s launch, in contrast with the spring months instantly prior. (It’s value noting that spring and fall are normally a extra widespread time for vacationers to go to Korea than summer season.) Throughout the identical months of the 12 months prior, they’d grown by simply 17%.
Medical clinics specializing in acupuncture, cupping and a kind of natural drugs known as hanyak — which Rumi tries to make use of to heal her voice — have been up 409% in 2025 in comparison with the 12 months prior, additionally in line with Creatrip.
Information from the Berlin-based excursions reserving web site Get Your Information exhibits related development. Takao Nishina, the corporate’s regional supervisor for Japan and South Korea, says tour bookings for areas featured within the movie — together with Gyeongbokgung Palace, Sky Lotte World Tower, N Seoul Tower and Bukchon Hanok Village — have grown by greater than 350% in 2025 in comparison with the 12 months prior.
Pop-up cafes, character meet-and-greets within the Brooklyn-esque neighborhood of Seongsu-dong and different straight tied experiences are springing as much as meet the second. Kuala Lumpur-based doctor Irina Ishak took her household to at least one such KPDH pop-up in Seongsu-dong in December, and considers it a spotlight of their journey.
“The children know all of the characters and the moments within the film,” Ishak says by way of textual content. “The pop-up was three flooring with character cutouts and scenes to take an image at every nook. There have been a couple of interactive corners like discovering a glow-in-a-dark Derpy cat print utilizing a torch. The children completely cherished it.” View this put up on Instagram
Creatrip chief government officer Haemin Yim believes the KPop Demon Hunters fervor is not like something Korea has seen in earlier hallyu-driven tourism waves. Up to now if individuals have been coming for Okay-pop, she says, their aim was to see concert events, go to Okay-pop group companies and go to cafes for “fandom-driven pilgrimage.” The attraction this movie has had with English audio system — vacationers from the US, UK, Canada and Australia — has given this wave a lot broader international traction and deeper engagement with elements of Korean tradition that stretch nicely past singing and dancing.
“Each main cultural factor within the movie — hanbok, jimjilbang, gimbap, samgyetang, Okay-pop dance, conventional drugs — is one thing a vacationer can straight guide and expertise in Korea. The movie primarily features as a 90-minute showcase of Korean day by day life, besides it’s wrapped in a narrative that 500 million individuals watched,” she says.
Set-jetting, the development through which individuals plan journeys to locations they’ve seen on display, has been dominant elsewhere, to the purpose of inflicting overcrowding in some locations. Hallstatt, Austria, has turn into an overtourism poster baby ever since households realized it was the real-life inspiration for the dominion of Arendelle in Frozen. And Disney’s Encanto has pushed extra average tourism site visitors to Colombia’s espresso area, a spot that was far off the radar for a lot of worldwide vacationers beforehand. View this put up on Instagram
In Seoul, KPop Demon Hunters’ fandom has not but stoked considerations of overtourism, and it could by no means achieve this. Whereas most film- and television-inspired vacationers focus their consideration on a small variety of extremely recognizable areas, KPDH followers have myriad methods to step into Rumi, Mira and Zoey’s demon-slashing footwear. The means through which the movie is spreading followers out to quite a lot of websites and experiences might actually make it a poster baby for what sustainable set-jetting may appear like.
Kim, the Honolulu-based mother of two, says the film can be trailblazing in different methods. “The paintings is gorgeous, the music is nice and it stuffed a void,” she says. “There aren’t a whole lot of films with woman tremendous heroes.”
(Updates with Get Your Information tour development in sixteenth paragraph, and awards wins in tenth.)
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