Yanolja Research

What Yanolja Research does

Yanolja Research is Korea's first private research institute specializing in the travel and tourism industry, established through a joint collaboration between Yanolja Co., Ltd. (the parent company), Kyung Hee University's Hospitality & Tourism Analytics Center, and Purdue University's CHRIBA (Center for Hospitality & Retail Industry Business Analytics). Founded in 2018 and headquartered at MDM Tower in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, the institute operates as a data-driven research entity serving Korean lodging businesses (hotels, motels, pensions, guesthouses, vacation rentals), travel and tourism companies, government tourism agencies, academic institutions, and media organizations. With a small team of approximately six employees led by CEO Seongsik Park and Director SooCheong Jang, the institute functions more as a think-tank and policy-advisory arm of the Yanolja travel platform ecosystem than a traditional commercial research vendor.

The company's core product suite comprises four proprietary consumer-perception indices — the Yanolja Attractiveness Index (covering 261 global cities), the Yanolja Brand Equity Index (Korean destination brand equity), the Yanolja Festival Index (560 festivals globally), and the Yanolja City Competitiveness Index for Korean cities — alongside a Tourism Indicators Dashboard, Lodging Industry Performance Indexes (ADR, OCC, RevPAR), downloadable Excel datasets, and a catalog of recurring publications (Insights, Briefs, Quarterly Trends, Research Reports). The underlying methodology fuses proprietary reservation and operational data from the NOL (formerly Yanolja Platform) ecosystem with external social data via Brandwatch (229 countries, 126 languages, 6 million+ channels), vacation rental analytics from AirDNA, lodging operations data from SanhaIT, and in-house surveys. Analytical processing is driven by Transformer-based natural language processing for multilingual sentiment classification across 14 languages, supported by a curated 419-keyword library validated across 17 sub-dimensions, and supplemented by predictive analytics over patent data for technology trend measurement.

The institute operates a subscription-based revenue model offering free email subscriptions to monthly briefs (Korean or English) alongside paid data downloads, premium research reports, and likely enterprise and government contracts for custom research. Its go-to-market centers on thought leadership: 45 Insights volumes, 14 Brief volumes, quarterly trends reports, and thematic research reports, reinforced by an active event program including the annual Yanolja Attractiveness Index Seminar, Korea Tourism City Competitiveness Forum, Global Festival Attractiveness Evaluation Seminar, Inbound Medical & Wellness Tourism Conference, and the co-hosted Travel Innovation Idea Contest with NOL UNIVERSE. The institute does not publicly disclose financial results and operates as a private entity under the strategic umbrella of parent Yanolja Co., Ltd.

Name

Yanolja Research

Legal name

Yanolja Research Co., Ltd.

Website

https://yanolja-research.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Yanolja Research is Korea's first private travel and tourism research institute, producing proprietary city, festival, and brand equity indices alongside lodging performance data for tourism businesses, government agencies, academia, and media.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Travel and Tourism Market Research

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYBPAHALAA

Market Research & Consumer Insights

Business & Public Services/Professional Services (Legal, Accounting, Consulting)/Research, Analytics & Expert Services

SECONDARYMPAAALAK

Social & Digital Insights (Social Listening, Online Community Research)

Media, Entertainment & Sports/Advertising, Marketing & PR Services/Market Research & Consumer Insights

SECONDARYMPAAALAB

Syndicated Market Research (Panels, Omnibus, Tracker Studies)

Media, Entertainment & Sports/Advertising, Marketing & PR Services/Market Research & Consumer Insights

Keywords

• Tourism market research
• Travel industry analytics
• Lodging performance benchmarks
• Destination attractiveness indexing
• Tourism city competitiveness

Headquarters

HQ city

Seoul

HQ country

South Korea

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Research Report Subscriptions: The company offers subscription-based access to monthly briefs, quarterly trends reports, research reports, and data services. Reports are delivered in the subscriber's preferred language (Korean or English). The subscription includes free seminar and forum information via email.
2. Data Downloads and Market Intelligence: The company provides downloadable data products including Korean Lodging Industry Performance Indicators in Excel format. These datasets cover quarterly and annual performance metrics for hotels, motels, guesthouses, and shared accommodations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Yanolja Research is Korea's first private research institute dedicated to the travel and tourism industry. It produces subscription-based research reports, briefs, and quarterly trends publications; develops proprietary tourism indices (Yanolja Attractiveness Index, Brand Equity Index, Festival Index, City Competitiveness Index); publishes Korean Lodging Industry Performance Indexes (ADR, OCC, RevPAR); and offers Tourism Indicators dashboards and downloadable datasets. Its methodology combines AI-based multilingual sentiment analysis of global social big data with proprietary reservation platform data from the parent Yanolja NOL ecosystem.

Product overview

Yanolja Research is Korea's first private research institute specializing in the travel and tourism industry, established through a joint partnership with Yanolja Co., Ltd., Kyung Hee University's H&T Analytics Center, and Purdue University's CHRIBA. The organization operates a comprehensive research platform offering data-driven analytics, industry indexes, and research publications. The core product portfolio consists of Tourism Indicators (dashboard and datasets covering demand/supply, economic indicators), Lodging Industry Performance Indexes (ADR, OCC, RevPAR metrics), and four major industry indexes: the Yanolja Attractiveness Index (global tourism city attractiveness), Yanolja Brand Equity Index (destination brand perception), Yanolja Festival Index (festival attractiveness), and Yanolja City Competitiveness Index (Korean city competitiveness). Supporting services include Market Forecast, Industry Research, Research Platform, and Knowledge Network offerings. Research outputs are delivered through multiple publication formats including Insights (45 volumes), Briefs (14 volumes), Quarterly Trends reports (14+), and Research Reports (8 volumes). The institute also hosts the annual Travel Innovation Idea Contest and offers subscription services for industry updates.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Yanolja Attractiveness Index: Global Tourism City Attractiveness Index evaluating cities from consumer's perspective based on awareness and attractiveness metrics
• Yanolja Brand Equity Index
• Yanolja Festival Index
• Yanolja City Competitiveness Index
• Datalab
• NOL (formerly Yanolja Platform)

Quantifiable outcome

• 261 cities evaluated in 2026 Global Tourism City Attractiveness Index (expanded from 191 in 2025)
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability7 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core, parent and support.

• NOL UNIVERSEflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Co-host of the annual Travel Innovation Idea Contest. The 2025 contest was co-hosted for its 3rd edition, and the 2026 contest for its 4th edition, under themes of travel innovation and regional tourism revitalization. Yanolja Square at MDM Tower serves as the event venue.
• Purdue University CHRIBA (Center for Hospitality & Retail Industry Business Analytics)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023Joint research collaboration for developing tourism competitiveness indices. CHRIBA (Center for Hospitality & Retail Industry Business Analytics) at Purdue University partners with Yanolja Research on the Korea Tourism City Competitiveness Index (YCCI) and other research initiatives. The collaboration brings academic rigor and international perspective to the company's research methodologies.
• Kyung Hee University H&T Analytics Center (Hospitality & Tourism Analytics Center)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023Collaborative research partnership with Kyung Hee University's College of Hotel & Tourism Management. The H&T Analytics Center serves as a key research partner for tourism analytics and destination competitiveness research, including the YCCI and Yanolja Attractiveness Index development.
• Yanolja Co., Ltd.parentOthers · 1 January 2023Parent company and founding partner of Yanolja Research. Provides proprietary platform data through NOL (formerly Yanolja Platform) for lodging industry performance analysis. The research institute was established through joint effort by Yanolja Co., Ltd. and the university partners.
• BrandwatchcoreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2023Global social data intelligence solution provider. Brandwatch provides data collection and analysis across 229 countries, 126 languages, and over 6 million channels. Used for the Global Festival Attractiveness Index and Yanolja Attractiveness Index to capture tourist perceptions and sentiment from social media platforms including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), blogs, and review platforms.
• Amazon Web Services, Inc.supportTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2023Cloud infrastructure provider for data storage and infrastructure management. AWS handles data storage requirements for the company's research operations and platform infrastructure.
• Diff Child, Co., Ltd.supportTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2023Website development and management service provider. Handles website maintenance and technical operations for yanolja-research.com.
• AirDNAsupportOthers · 1 January 2023Data provider for vacation rental operations analysis. AirDNA provides aggregated and statistical data on vacation rental operations used in the Korean Lodging Industry Performance Indexes.
• SanhaITsupportOthers · 1 January 2023Technology partner providing aggregated and statistical data on lodging operation status. Part of the Yanolja ecosystem (SanhaIT, Yanolja Go Global are listed as family sites).

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• STR (now part of CoStar): STR is the global gold-standard provider of hotel performance benchmarking (ADR, OCC, RevPAR) — the same metrics Yanolja Research covers for the Korean lodging market. STR's international scope and methodology directly overlap with Yanolja's lodging index offering.
• Phocuswright: Phocuswright is a leading travel industry research and intelligence firm producing syndicated research, consumer studies, and market sizing — closely aligned with Yanolja Research's industry research, market forecasts, and travel trend reports.
• Skift Research: Skift Research produces subscription-based travel industry research, reports, and indices (e.g., Skift Travel Health Index). Directly comparable to Yanolja Research's subscription research publications and proprietary tourism indices.
• AirDNA: AirDNA provides vacation rental performance data and market intelligence — already a data partner of Yanolja Research. They share the same vacation rental benchmarking methodology and lodging market intelligence focus.
• Tourism Economics: Tourism Economics is an Oxford Economics company specializing in tourism forecasting, economic impact studies, and destination analytics — directly comparable to Yanolja Research's market forecasts, tourism economic impact research, and government policy support work.
• HVS Global Hospitality Services: HVS provides hospitality consulting, hotel valuation, and industry research — overlapping with Yanolja Research's revenue management research, hotel pricing analysis, and lodging industry intelligence for the hospitality sector.

Broad incumbents

• Euromonitor International: Euromonitor is a global market research leader producing country and industry reports, including extensive travel and tourism intelligence. A broader incumbent than Yanolja Research's specialized tourism focus but offers overlapping consumer insights and market sizing.
• Morning Consult: Morning Consult is a global survey-based research and intelligence firm producing brand tracking, consumer sentiment, and industry indices. Their brand tracking methodology and consumer perception indices overlap with Yanolja's Brand Equity and Attractiveness Index work.

Regional players

• Korea Culture & Tourism Institute (KCTI): KCTI is the Korean government-affiliated tourism research institute that produces official tourism statistics and policy research — already a data source cited by Yanolja Research. Closest domestic alternative for Korean tourism market intelligence.

Others

• Brandwatch (now part of Cision): Brandwatch is Yanolja Research's core technology partner providing the global social data intelligence platform covering 229 countries. As the underlying data infrastructure provider, they are an enabler rather than a competitor, but their own consumer insights capabilities are adjacent to Yanolja's offerings.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Yanolja Research