Why Camping and Glamping Are So Popular in Korea

Camping fits Korea’s urban weekend: nature can be close enough for one night, and the campsite becomes a private living room that people can shape themselves. Glamping widened the appeal by keeping that escape while removing most of the buying, carrying and setup work.

The scale is substantial, though the story is no longer a simple boom. The Korea Tourism Organization’s 2024 Camping User Survey estimates that 5.46 million Koreans aged 19 to 69 took at least one overnight camping trip in 2024, or 14.7% of that population. That was down from 6.34 million in 2023. The report labels itself non-official statistics, so its value is the detailed national snapshot rather than a claim that every number is definitive.

The best campground is often the nearest good one

When survey respondents chose a camping region, distance was the first consideration for 49.5% of them. Campground facilities came a distant second at 14.0%. That ordering explains more than a dreamy idea of returning to nature: for a city resident with one free night, a manageable drive can matter more than a famous destination.

The escape also changes with the season without demanding a long holiday. A wooded site on Seoul’s edge can feel like a different room at dusk, then become a stove-and-coffee retreat in winter. These two views are from the same Dulle Camp, which is why they belong together rather than as separate decorative photos.

The campsite became a room you build yourself

The visual side of Korean camping is hard to miss. Tents, tarps, lanterns, tables, storage boxes and cookware form a coordinated setup; the pleasure is partly in arranging the scene before anyone sits down to eat. Online photos make those layouts easy to compare and imitate, which turns practical equipment into a language of taste.

Gear buying, however, is no longer accelerating. The same KTO survey puts average annual camping-equipment spending at KRW 786,000 in 2024, down from KRW 1.49 million in 2020. The decline suggests a mature market: many regular campers already own the basics, and the 2020 purchasing peak has passed. Gear still matters, but the habit can persist after the shopping surge ends.

Glamping removes the least enjoyable work

A recurring beginner question is how much equipment, storage space, driving and setup must come before the pleasant part. A Reddit discussion about glamping near Seoul captures that friction: the original poster liked the idea but found ordinary camping daunting once the gear list and transport problem appeared. It is useful as a question signal, not as a national statistic.

Glamping answers the problem with a fixed unit, beds and much of the furniture already in place. In the KTO survey, 38.4% of 2024 overnight campers reported using glamping at least once. Among non-campers who intended to camp within three years, 50.9% preferred glamping; the share reached 61.1% among people aged 19 to 29 and 54.1% in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon. The Gyeonggi Province tourism blog describes the same appeal in plain terms: beginners can arrive without assembling a full kit.

The trade-off is that “glamping” is a broad label, not a hotel standard. One place may provide a heated room, private bathroom and cooking equipment; another may offer little beyond a furnished tent. Checking the exact inclusions still matters. Convenience is the attraction, but the amount of convenience varies.

The booking fight is mostly about Saturday

People can reasonably feel that every good site is sold out while operators still report empty capacity. The operator section of the 2024 survey recorded average annual utilization of 40.6%, but spring and autumn weekends reached 70.9% and 74.3%. In the capital region, those weekend figures rose to 76.3% and 79.2%. Weekdays in the same seasons were far quieter.

This is the reservation puzzle: demand piles onto the same mild-weather weekends, at nearby sites, for the same one-night break. The market is not full at all times. The slots that suit a city worker’s calendar are full much more often, which is why booking can feel competitive even after overall participation has eased.

The boom cooled, but the habit stayed

Camping in Korea is social more often than solitary. In the KTO survey, 73.5% of campers named family as a companion and 40.4% named friends; solo campers were 3.1%. Respondents averaged 5.6 camping trips during 2024, enough to make it a recurring leisure routine rather than a once-a-year expedition. Age, income and region changed the pattern, so none of those shares should be read as a single national personality.

The forward-looking numbers are measured rather than breathless: 59.9% expected to keep the same number of trips the following year and 23.4% expected to take more, while 16.8% planned to reduce or stop. Those numbers describe a durable, maturing pastime. Nearby nature makes the weekend workable, gear lets regulars build a world of their own, and glamping gives newcomers a door that does not require a storeroom full of equipment.