Yanolja to Showcase Travel-Specific AI Technologies at 'AI EXPO KOREA 2026'

Global travel tech company Yanolja (Group CEO: Sujin Lee) will participate in 'AI EXPO KOREA 2026', Asia’s largest AI-focused exhibition, to showcase AI technologies tailored for the travel industry. From May 6 to 8, Yanolja will host an experiential booth at COEX in Seoul under the theme 'AI FOR TRAVEL', bringing together AI technologies and solutions from across the group. Visitors will be able to explore a range of innovations that are transforming the travel industry. At the booth, visitors can experience a range of AI technologies transforming the travel industry. The journey begins with contactless check-in via 'WINGS Smart KIOSK' by Sanha IT, followed by 'Tella by Yanolja NEXT', an AI agent that combines VoIP and AI to enable real-time communication beyond language and time barriers. Visitors can also explore 'Vicker AI', a generative image solution that creates time-lapse visuals—depicting changes in time and seasons—from a single accommodation image, offering an immersive preview of travel destinations. NOL UNIVERSE, Yanolja Consumer Platform Division, will introduce AI-powered travel service technologies. Visitors can experience 'AI NOLI', an AI-powered conversational discovery service, and 'AI Trip Planner', which supports everything from travel recommendations to route optimization—maximizing convenience and enhancing the overall travel experience. On the morning of May 6, the opening day of the event, Youngjin Kim, CTO of Yanolja Consumer Platform Division, will deliver a presentation titled 'AI-Driven Global Travel Innovation: Hyper-Personalized Experiences Across the Entire Journey (B2B2C)'. During the session, Kim will share insights into the future of global travel, where AI connects travel operators and distribution channels to enable hyper-personalized experiences and seamless connectivity. A Yanolja official said, "This exhibition provides an opportunity to showcase AI technologies optimized for the travel industry", and added, "We will continue to strengthen our technological leadership across the global travel industry through AI and data-driven innovation."

Yanolja Drives AI Innovation with AWS at 2026 Tech Terminal & Innovation Summit

Yanolja (Group CEO Su-jin Lee), a global travel tech leader, is accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) innovation across the travel industry through an expanded collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). On April 17th, Yanolja co-hosted the '2026 Tech Terminal & Innovation Summit' with AWS at 10X Tower, NOL UNIVERSE headquarters located in Pangyo. Marking its second consecutive year, the summit served as a premier platform to showcase innovation cases that integrate AWS’s world-leading cloud and AI technologies with Yanolja’s extensive travel data infrastructure. The event also focused on exploring strategies to sharpen AI competitiveness within the global travel tech market. A featured session, "AI Agents: A Journey for Developers," introduced 'Strands Agents SDK,' AWS’s development toolkit for AI agents, alongside 'Amazon Bedrock AgentCore,' an operational platform for building enterprise-grade generative and agentic AI. Yanolja is currently leveraging these technologies to develop an internal platform powered by AI agents. By creating an environment where diverse automation functions can be rapidly deployed and managed, the company is driving continuous improvements in operational efficiency and developer productivity. Furthermore, by utilizing AWS’s global cloud infrastructure and AI solutions, Yanolja is delivering hyper-personalized experiences tailored to the specific preferences and contexts of travelers. For travel business operators, Yanolja provides AI-driven automation solutions that enhance service quality and efficiency across all operations, from reservation management to customer support. "Yanolja is setting new benchmarks for the travel industry in the AI era, powered by our unique data assets and technological expertise," a Yanolja spokesperson stated. "Through close collaboration with global big tech partners like AWS, we will continue to strengthen our AI capabilities and lead the digital transformation of the global travel market."

NOL UNIVERSE Reports Steady 2025 Growth in Entertainment & Ticketing

NOL UNIVERSE announced the results of its 2025 entertainment and ticketing data analysis today. Based on sales data from NOL and NOL Ticket, the market showed clear expansion driven by content diversification and evolving viewing habits. The analysis covered the entire spectrum of the industry, including Musicals, Concerts, Theater, Sports, Exhibition/Events, Classical/Dance, and Family. Total transaction volume across these categories grew by 7% year-over-year (YoY), maintaining solid growth.By category, Concerts recorded the highest growth at 15%, followed by Sports (7%) and Musicals (3%). ■ Diversifying Concert Genres and Stronger Female Fandom; Earlier Booking TrendsThe concert market in 2025 was characterized by genre diversification and powerful fandom influence. Top-selling events based on ticket volume featured a mix of global pop stars like Coldplay and Oasis, alongside diverse domestic artists such as Kim Dong-ryul, SEVENTEEN, and Lim Young-woong. Notably, the share of female ticket buyers in the concert category increased by 7%p YoY, demonstrating significant purchasing power.Booking lead times have also moved up significantly. While the average booking lead time across all categories shifted from 26 days to 32 days before the event (up 6 days), concertgoers showed a trend of booking approximately 15 days earlier than in the previous year. ■ Culture as a Daily Routine: Weekday Attendance and Solo Bookings on the RiseBooking patterns revealed that single-ticket reservations accounted for nearly 50% of all bookings. Categories with the highest share of solo attendees were Concerts (59%), Theater (57%), and Musicals (55%), likely driven by strong fandoms and the "revolving door" (repeat viewing) culture. Weekday attendance (Mon–Thu) is also becoming a new norm. The share of weekday concert tickets sold increased by 11%p YoY to 27%, indicating that the weekend-centric performance culture is expanding into the work week. Additionally, the Exhibition/Event category saw a 50:50 split between weekday and weekend attendance, suggesting that cultural activities have settled in as a daily lifestyle rather than just a special event. ■ From Baseball to Soccer, From Seoul to the Provinces: Expanding the HorizonsIn the sports category, the diversification of popular sports was prominent. While baseball dominated the popularity rankings in the previous year, interest in Soccer exploded in 2025. Global big matches such as FC Seoul vs. FC BARCELONA and Daegu FC vs. FC BARCELONA, as well as domestic league matches, topped the rankings. The expansion of cultural content beyond the Seoul metropolitan area was also noteworthy. In terms of listing growth by region, Chungcheongbuk-do recorded the fastest growth with a 37% increase YoY. This was followed by Jeju Special Self-Governing Province (26.4%) and Chungcheongnam-do (26.0%), reflecting an active supply of cultural products in non-metropolitan areas to meet regional demand. “As entertainment content diversifies and viewing habits evolve, cultural consumption is becoming part of daily life,” said Baek Sae-mi, Head of Entertainment Business Group at NOL UNIVERSE. “We plan to lead the growth of the entertainment and leisure market by further enhancing our services based on data-driven insights that reflect the diverse tastes of our customers”.

NOL UNIVERSE Honors Small & Mid-Sized Musicals at 2026 HyeGong Awards

NOL UNIVERSE has successfully concluded the “2026 Amazing HyeGong Awards,” reaffirming the value of small- and mid-sized theater musicals and contributing to the revitalization of Korea’s performing arts creation ecosystem. On March 30, the awards ceremony was held at NOL Theater Daehangno in Jongno-gu, Seoul, co-hosted by NOL UNIVERSE and Hyehwaroun Performance Life, a YouTube channel specializing in musicals and theater. The channel is widely recognized for bridging the gap between productions and audiences through in-depth communication with performers and diverse video content. This marks the third consecutive year of collaboration between the two organizations, further strengthening their partnership to expand performing arts content and audience engagement. The awards recognized musicals performed in theaters with fewer than 700 seats in Seoul during 2025. In addition to titles available through NOL and NOL Ticket, productions sold through other ticketing platforms were also included in the nominee pool. Winners were selected based primarily on audience surveys and voting, ensuring both popularity and fairness. The ceremony, attended by leading actors and creative teams, was livestreamed via NOL, NOL Ticket, and the Hyehwaroun Performance Life YouTube channel, enabling real-time interaction with performing arts fans. This year’s awards covered a wide range of categories, including performers, productions, creative staff, and special recognitions. The Best Actor awards were presented to Kyungsoo Kim and Wooyeon Jung, while the Rookie Awards went to Seheon Lee and Younghwa Cho. The Music Award was awarded to composer Chan-hong Min and music director Eun-kyung Shin for Rimbaud. The Stage Design Award went to In My Noisy Forest, and Night on the Galactic Railroad received the Best House Manager Award. Notably, MAD HATTER emerged as the biggest winner, taking home four awards: Best Musical, Best Direction, Best Theater, and Best Props Design. Inspired by the Mad Hatter from the classic Alice in Wonderland, the production was praised for its imaginative storytelling and sophisticated direction, expanding the aesthetic boundaries of small-scale musicals. Baek Saemi, Head of Entertainment Business at NOL UNIVERSE, stated: “The HyeGong Awards, which we have co-hosted with Hyehwaroun Performance Life for three consecutive years, highlight the creativity and potential of small- and mid-sized theater musicals. We will continue to foster a performing arts ecosystem where high-quality productions can reach broader audiences through diverse initiatives that connect creators and audiences.”

Yanolja Joins Global Environmental Campaign 'Earth Hour'… Saving Energy in Daily Life

Global travel tech company Yanolja (CEO Sujin Lee) participated in 'Earth Hour', the world's largest environmental campaign, taking steps to save energy in daily life in response to the climate crisis. 'Earth Hour' is a global nature conservation campaign hosted by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It is an annual event held on the last Saturday of March, encouraging individuals and businesses to turn off their lights for one hour to raise awareness about the need for environmental protection. Yanolja simultaneously turned off the lights across all floors of its headquarters and the '10X Tower', the headquarters of NOL UNIVERSE, a member company of its Consumer Platform Division, for one hour starting at 8:30 PM on the 28th. Through this headquarters lights-out, Yanolja saved approximately 300kWh of electricity, which is equivalent to the amount needed to power 125 household refrigerators for a full day. In addition, the company added further meaning to the campaign by hosting a home lights-out certification event to encourage employees to participate in environmental protection in their daily lives. Beyond one-time campaigns, Yanolja continues to engage in regular energy-saving activities. The '10X Tower', the headquarters of NOL UNIVERSE under the Consumer Platform Division, has steadily improved its operational efficiency by turning off indoor lights during lunchtime and landscape lighting at night, upgrading heating and cooling controls, and utilizing outdoor air cooling. As a result, it achieved a reduction in energy consumption of approximately 723MWh in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year. This is equivalent to a reduction of approximately 123 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, which matches the amount of carbon absorbed by about 1,000 pine trees in the central region over 60 years. Moving forward, Yanolja plans to maximize the energy efficiency of its headquarters infrastructure based on its unrivaled IT capabilities. A Yanolja official stated, "Participating in the Earth Hour campaign is part of our efforts to spread a positive impact on the environment and society," adding, "We will continue to fulfill our social responsibilities as a global travel tech company through various activities that practice sustainable management values."