Sports have always given us strength. Athletes who overcome their limits through sweat and those behind them who shape the future of sports through technology and sponsorship. Everyone is the protagonist who is writing the new history and future of Korean sports. Now, sports are opening up a world of convergence with the addition of artificial intelligence (AI) and data technology, and the stage of K-sports is broadening. As the power of science is added to sports, an unscripted drama, the sports industry is now becoming the foundation for providing hope and inspiration to Korea. Accordingly, Hans Economy and Korea Sports Economy would like to use the 9th 2025 K-Sponomics Forum as an opportunity to tell the story of hope created by the meeting of sports and industry. Planning special feature
| Hans Economy = Reporter Park Jong-min | Hana Tour recently announced its full-fledged entry into the sports tourism market. Last month, it made a strategic investment (SI) in ‘CR8TOUR’, a running-based sports travel platform, and became the second largest shareholder. C2 is the only professional platform in Korea that combines running and travel, and is leading the run tour market by encompassing domestic and overseas run tours, content, and community services. In particular, it is establishing an unrivaled position as a running-specialized sports travel platform with exclusive domestic sales rights for the Paris International Marathon and travel product sales rights for the Sydney Marathon, the world’s seven major marathons.
The global sports tourism market was valued at approximately $618.6 billion (approximately KRW 860 trillion) last year and is expected to grow to approximately $2.0895 trillion (approximately KRW 2,900 trillion) in 2032. Through this investment, Hana Tour plans to secure a foundation for entry into the sports tourism market and diversify its portfolio focusing on the domestic run tour market, which is expected to see high growth.
The two companies plan to maximize profits and attract highly involved customers through joint product planning and sales, and introduce differentiated running travel products by combining Hana Tour’s global infrastructure (airlines, hotels, local tours) with C2’s global marathon ITP and running-based community and content.
Hana Tour’s movement is not unrelated to the ‘Nomad Fitness’ phenomenon, which has recently become a popular trend. Nomad fitness refers to a ‘lifestyle of enjoying exercise anytime, anywhere,’ which also means that any boundaries for exercising have been broken down. In line with this trend, not only Hana Tour but also industry players Modetour and Yellow Balloon are releasing sports products such as yoga, spa, and trekking.
Hana Tour has previously introduced a series of interesting intuitive products. An official from Hana Tour told this newspaper, “We are expanding our sports intuition products with experts,” and added, “The National Basketball Association (NBA) intuition travel product targeting basketball fans has sold out every time, and last year, we introduced the National Football League (NFL) intuition travel, the first American football intuition product in the domestic travel industry.” He continued, “We plan to continue to expand sports intuition products with experts, while discovering various sports intuition tours according to the interests of travelers, such as the NBA and Major League Baseball (MLB), and actively communicating to introduce special sports products.”
Hana Tour plans to expand and accelerate its theme travel portfolio, such as sports tourism, in earnest starting in 2026. In particular, the investment in K2 is expected to be a signal for the company to leap forward as a global theme travel brand. In the future, we plan to continue to expand strategic investments and acquisitions in theme-specific startups and services based on the hobbies and interests of the 2040 generation. We are also expecting synergy with independent travel (FIT) brands and products targeting young customers, such as ‘Mingling Tour’, ‘My Flight + Hotel’, and ‘Airtel’.
An official from Hana Tour said, “Travel trends are changing from simply visiting tourist attractions and visiting delicious restaurants to special-purpose travel centered on personal interests and hobbies. We will expand our theme travel product portfolio and leap forward as a theme-based travel platform through collaboration with startups with growth potential and innovation.”
