Why do funeral service firms expand to travel business?

A photo frame of a deceased person is covered with flowers during a funeral service in this undated photo. Yonhap

A Kyowon Life telephone consultant surnamed Park says she increasingly takes calls from customers in their 60s or older who are heavily interested in the travel packages her company offers. They are all currently subscribed to the firm’s prepaid funeral service plan.

Park says she also receives inquiries from potential customers, many of them in their 20s and 30s, who do not ask much about funerals.

Rather, they want to know details concerning travel services that can be chosen as an alternative option only after first subscribing to the prepaid funeral service plan.

A promotional image of Kyowon Life's travel package / Captured image from Kyowon Life website

“I wasn’t first sure whether they are serious about subscription, given that funeral planning, burial, cremation, memorialization and other death-related administrative tasks are far from honeymoon trips and cruise tours,” she said.

Park’s experience illustrates a growing trend among funeral service providers where more customers opt to switch to travel packages and other available options after subscribing to pre-arranged plans for death.

The trend is associated with Korea’s rapidly increasing life expectancy: In 2023, Koreans’ average life expectancy reached 83.5 years, according to Statistics Korea, up from 62.3 years in 1970, 76 years in 2020 and 82.7 years in 2022.

The 2023 figure was also 2.5 years higher than the OECD average of 81 years and was the fifth-highest among all OECD member states.

“An increase in life expectancy suggests a decline in urgency for death planning and a higher tendency to enjoy the present,” Lee Eun-hee, a professor at Inha University’s Department of Consumer and Child Studies, said.

The professor noted that funeral service providers reap profits as individuals plan and pay for their funerals in advance, protecting against inflation and corresponding future hikes in funeral costs.

Subscribers make monthly payments for a few years, paying millons of won in total. In return, they get more comfortable and customized services during a difficult time.

“Under the circumstances, longer life expectancy is leading companies to feature travel packages and other personalized options that reflect the latest lifestyles because otherwise they can’t keep their customers,” the professor said.

Lee said such a strategy “helps the companies to prevent un-subscriptions on one hand, and bring customer satisfaction on the other hand.”

Shin Se-don, a professor emeritus of economics at Sookmyung Women’s University, said the flexibility in funeral service providers’ package sales address high inflation, unstable currency rates and other factors related to heightened economic uncertainty.

“It takes a longer time to save a sufficient amount of money to travel abroad, but subscribers to the prepaid funeral service plan are relatively free from such concerns as they have made corresponding payments in advance,” he said.

A promtional image of Boram Sangjo's cruise tour / Captured image from Boram Sangjo website

The outstanding balance in payments received from customers in advance is a key measurement of profit for funeral service providers, according to industry officials.

And Kyowon Life, Preedlife and Boram Sangjo are among the first-tier market players that surpassed more than 1 trillion won ($735.61 million) in their outstanding balances for the first quarter of 2025.

Travel packages are the most popular among the alternative options they offer, which include wedding services, home furnishing and overseas language study for children.

A latecomer to the market in 2010, Kyowon Life had the insight to diversify these options.

Without giving details, the company said the number of its customers who switched from prepaid funeral service plan to alternative services more than doubled over the past several years.

It underlined that preference for travel packages grew over time, noting that 17 percent of those who switched packages chose travel in 2022, but the rate grew to 50 percent in 2023 and 75 percent in 2024.

“Simply put, more than seven out of 10 corresponding customers are opting for travel when they switch,” the company said.

More than 40 of their travel programs allow customers to visit North America, Europe, Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia for honeymoons and other themed trips. “We’ll continue to enhance our position as a leading innovator in the post-death service industry.”

Preedlife said travel packages accounted for 45 percent of all alternative services chosen in 2022. It then rose to 70 percent in 2023 and 75 percent in 2024.

It attributed the increase to customers in their 20s and 30s. They accounted for 11 percent of the company’s entire customer base in 2024, marking more than a twofold rise from 2021.

“More customers indicate a shift in perception of prepaid funeral service plans as a flexible form of investment in line with their lifestyle,” the company said.

Boram Sangjo said its cruise tour program is especially popular among older customers who want to relax on a ship rather than move around multiple travel destinations.

Additonally, it has tapped into the golf market in cooperation with global golf resort operator Artitaya and the Korea Park Golf Federation.

“We specifically target older adults to cope with their growing demand for active lifestyles,” it said.