Yanolja Company said on the 18th that it will acquire the entire equity of Loco-Partners under Japanese telecom operator KDDI. Loco-Partners operates the Japanese high-end travel booking platform "Relux."
Relux is an OTA platform specialized in booking luxury accommodations in Japan. It targets customers seeking uniquely Japanese premium stays such as onsen ryokan, luxury resorts, and premium hotels. By prioritizing services aimed at customers who value the quality of accommodations and travel experiences over simple price comparisons, it has established a foothold in Japan's high-end travel market. Its membership is known to be about 3.8 million.
Relux is a platform with strengths in luxury hotels, resorts, and ryokan products. With about 3.8 million members, it is considered one of Japan's representative travel booking services.
Through this acquisition, Yanolja Company will establish a business structure that operates major travel platforms in both Korea and Japan. In Korea, it runs services centered on the free-travel platform "Yanolja," and engages in the package travel business through subsidiary Yanolja Tour's "Online Tour." By adding the Japanese high-end travel platform Relux, it plans to expand synergies across platforms.
The three platforms will share know-how across a range of areas, including product planning and operations, marketing strategies, and technology development. Yanolja Company plans to link Korean travel products to Relux and supply Japanese accommodation products held by Relux to Yanolja to secure differentiated competitiveness in travel products.
On this basis, it will actively target not only each country's domestic travel market but also the cross-border travel demand between Korea and Japan. While simultaneously aiming at Japanese tourists visiting Korea and Koreans traveling to Japan, it also plans to target third-country travelers visiting East Asia. The goal is to secure competitiveness in the global market and broaden mid- to long-term growth drivers.
Chief Executive Officer Jeong Myeong-hun of Yanolja Company said, "With the acquisition of a Japanese travel platform, we have laid the groundwork for directly entering the inbound and global markets." He added, "Yanolja has led travel in Korea with three pillars—product, marketing, and technology," and explained, "This M&A is the first step in confidently taking on a new market based on overwhelming capabilities."