K-Pop not only conquered the world, it brought the world to South Korea. That was the main, somewhat unsurprising conclusion of a new research study commissioned by Airbnb as part of its ongoing collaboration with some of the country’s biggest music stars.
Last week, Airbnb opened the doors to an immersive, neon-lit experience created in partnership with K-pop band Cortis. Meanwhile, the company quietly released an in-depth report titled “Connecting Korea: How Korean Culture Is Driving a New Generation of Travelers to Korea.” While Curtis’ experience lit up social media as fans flocked to central Seoul hoping to catch a glimpse of one of K-pop’s fastest-rising groups, the research study revealed the smart strategy behind the global travel brand’s growing efforts to align its identity in Korea with the country’s greatest cultural exports.
Airbnb’s report, which was based on a survey of several thousand international guests to Korea, found that 94% of visitors and potential travelers to the country say Korean culture influenced their interest in going. Perhaps most important, travelers who are highly motivated by Korean culture stay longer, spend more, and are more likely to travel in groups. The report depicts the growing trend of young people from all over the world making plans for the K-Pop pilgrimage they have always dreamed of.
Kurtis are among the hottest new garments sparking this demand. The five-member group — Martin, James, Juhoon, Seonghyeon, and Keonho — debuted under Hybe’s BigHit Music label in August 2025, and is the most prominent act to be released on BTS’s imprint in years. their debut EP, Color outside the lineslanded at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, and earlier this year, they headlined the opening night of the NBA Crossover Concert Series during NBA All-Star 2026 — the first K-pop act to do so.
Their lead single “Redred” was recently released on their second EP Greengreenprovided both the soundtrack and visual experience of the bunker that Airbnb had built around them at home in Korea. The space, housed in an elegant event building in central Seoul, is divided into two worlds of color drawn from the EP – crimson red zones and verdant green spaces, furnished with personal elements and design touches drawn from the members’ own creative studio.
Via a two-hour guided tour, the 30 fans selected for Airbnb’s launch day event moved through a series of game-like stations, the first designed to impress upon their personal preferences so they could see how their tastes compared to Curtis members’.
“It feels special to invite our fans, Coers, to our hideaway in Seoul,” the group said in a statement issued on the occasion of the launch. “Redred is about discovering ourselves – what we tend toward, and what we resist.”
Elsewhere in the dugout, fans deciphered a Curtis-themed crossword with UV-lit clues, personalized memorabilia to take home, and made their way through the paint splatter area. The afternoon culminated in a block-stacking game played between fans and all five members of the group – a kind of unscripted personal encounter that has become the greatest emotional currency of the K-pop fanbase.
Airbnb opened the larger pop-up — the same space, but without the group members present — to more than 1,000 additional guests over the following week.
For Airbnb, the partnership is the latest step in a K-pop strategy it has been slowly building for years. The company first linked itself to Korean culture in 2022, offering two guests an overnight stay at the countryside pension where BTS filmed their reality show. In Alsup. A first-of-its-kind residency was held inside Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul in 2023, in partnership with BTS bandmates Enhypen. Last year, Airbnb significantly expanded its strategy by partnering with Seventeen, running a series of fan experiences across Seoul, Los Angeles and Tokyo in conjunction with the group’s world tour.
This model mirrors Airbnb’s high-profile moves into the American pop world — like Sabrina Carpenter’s recent list that dropped during this year’s Coachella festival — but with the added element that most K-pop fans are also interested in exploring traditional Korean culture as part of their fanbase. Airbnb is pitching its growing business of experiences — unique, personalized activities designed and led by a local host — directly to K-pop travelers as well, with popular activities on the platform including K-pop dance classes or tours through Seoul’s famous night markets.
“K-pop concerts and concerts are a strong driver of travel demand,” Leila Seo, Airbnb’s Korea manager, said during a small group chat with reporters in Seoul last week. “When fans book a flight ticket and then look for a place to stay, we like to be that anchor – and then offer a variety of experiences so they can understand the city in a better way.”
According to Seo, BTS’s recent comeback show in Seoul increased occupancy throughout the city’s accommodation inventory — including Airbnb listings — to nearly capacity over one weekend. The company’s report also found that travelers who are strongly motivated by Korean culture spend about $435 more per trip on average than those who don’t.
Unlike most markets, Airbnb’s pop music partnerships in Korea are more than just typical marketing — they’ve become an important part of the US company’s government lobbying.
Airbnb arrived in Korea in 2013, and like many tech platforms entering the country during that era, it found particularly fertile ground. Korean consumers tend to be early adopters, and the company’s idea — staying like a local — has resonated with a generation of Koreans who have begun traveling abroad in record numbers. For much of the next decade, Airbnb operated in a legal gray area, with its host base expanding rapidly during the pandemic as domestic travel soared.
But a reckoning of sorts came two years ago. Facing increasing regulatory scrutiny, complaints from competitors, and questions about which listings were properly licensed, Airbnb made what Seo described as the “very difficult decision” to force its hosts to voluntarily comply with Korea’s strict short-term rental laws, which require every listing on the platform to hold the appropriate accommodation license. Korea imposes some of the world’s strictest requirements for hosting Airbnb (not including regions that have banned the service completely). There are 27 different license categories a host can register under, each with its own set of qualifications. Some require checking out of every adjacent apartment in the building. Others include proof of English language proficiency on the part of the host.
“The first reaction from many potential hosts is: ‘How do I get started?’” Seo says.
But the CEO says Airbnb has reached a point of maturity in Korea where it has no choice but to make sure all its hosts are operating legally.
“The intention was clear: to build trust in this community and its acceptance as a social institution in Korea,” Seo says. “You have to act, and show your commitment first.”
Airbnb’s K-Pop partnerships are a more implicit second step in its regulatory messaging.
The Korean government has set a goal of attracting 30 million visitors a year — a sharp jump from the roughly 16.4 million visitors the country attracted in 2024, the latest year for which official figures are available. Korean culture is one of the country’s most valuable strategic assets, and a great point of pride for the Seoul government. By publicly aligning itself with the biggest names in K-pop and producing data showing that culturally motivated visitors stay longer and spend more — especially outside Seoul, where Airbnb’s geographic footprint differs from hotels — the company is betting it can translate brand goodwill into regulatory reform.
“We have never seen so much love and attention from outside the peninsula,” says Siu. “We need more.” of accommodation here, but our regulations can’t keep up.” “So we’re working with the government on reform. The government wants to welcome 30 million incoming passengers – and we would like to be part of that. But to get there, we need to reorganize.”
