What Is the Korea Grand Sale, and Who Can Use It?

Last updated: October 29, 2026. This guide stays at the same address and is updated each time a new Korea Grand Sale benefit or event is announced.

The Korea Grand Sale is a nationwide winter festival that bundles discounts, events and K-culture experiences for international visitors into one season. It is hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and organized by the Visit Korea Committee, and it has been held since 2011. If you have heard Korean friends talk about a winter "grand sale" and wondered whether it applies to you, it does: it was built for travelers, not residents.

The official site describes it as a shopping, culture and tourism festival for international visitors, and lists eligibility in one word: foreigners. Airlines, shops, hotels, restaurants and experience programs join as participating businesses, and each one sets its own offer and its own conditions. Some offers are codes you use online before you fly; others are coupons or perks you claim in person once you land. Keep your passport with you, because it is the simplest way to show you are visiting from abroad.

This edition runs under the slogan "Come Get Your Own K". The idea is that every traveler comes for a different slice of Korea, and the promotional video walks through them one by one: K-Food, K-Pop, K-Beauty, K-Tradition and K-Winter. The festival's business categories are broader: airlines and transportation, shopping, accommodation, food and beverage, beauty and health, experiences, and convenience services.

When Is Korea's Big Sale Season for Tourists?

For international visitors, Korea's main sale season is winter. This edition of the Korea Grand Sale runs for 53 days, from Wednesday, December 23, 2026 to Saturday, February 13, 2027. That window takes in Christmas, New Year, the January department-store sales and the run-up to the Lunar New Year holiday, so it suits both a short year-end break and a longer trip in the quiet weeks of January.

Some benefits start earlier than the festival itself. The flight promotions are already opening in stages from November, because you need to book a flight before you can use anything on the ground. Other offers usually go live closer to the start date, and some run only for part of the festival, so read the dates on each offer rather than assuming everything lasts all 53 days.

There is a second sale season that often gets mixed up with this one. K-Sale Festa is Korea's national shopping festival, the closest thing the country has to Black Friday, and this year it runs as part of the Korea Grand Festival from October 29 to November 15, 2026. It is aimed mainly at people who live in Korea, although visitors in town during those weeks also get some perks; our guide to Korea Grand Festival perks for visitors covers them. The two are separate events with separate websites.

If you want the whole calendar in one place, including the November platform sales and the beauty chains' own sale weeks, our guide to Korea's sale season month by month lays it out.

Are There Discounts for Foreign Visitors? What's Confirmed So Far

Yes, but they arrive in stages. As of October 29, 2026, the official site has published the flight promotions and one online event. Every other category is listed as part of the festival but has no published offers yet. This table shows where each category stands, and it is updated here as announcements come in.

The participating businesses are still being lined up: the call for companies to join this edition stays open until November 30, 2026. That is why shopping, hotel and food offers are not on the site yet. In past editions most of them appeared shortly before the festival opened.

Flights are the one benefit you can act on now. Eight airlines are taking part: Air Seoul opens first on November 1, followed by Jeju Air on November 11, Aero K on November 23, and Korean Air, Jin Air and Trinity Airways on December 1, with Eastar Jet and Air Busan still to confirm their dates. Jeju Air's first round, for flights from Japan and Taiwan, has already ended. Routes, booking windows and code rules differ by airline, and our guide to Korea Grand Sale flight deals tracks each one as it opens.

How Do I Get Korea Grand Sale Benefits?

Start with the official website, koreagrandsale.co.kr. It is the only place where every participating offer is listed, and it comes in five languages: Korean, English, Japanese, simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese. Use the language switch at the top of the page. The Japanese site uses the festival's Japanese name, and the Chinese sites call it the Korea Shopping Festival, so search results may look different depending on the language you use.

Once offers are listed, there are three tools worth knowing:

• The Special Benefit page. Offers are sorted by category, such as flights, shopping, gourmet and experiences. Each one shows its own promotion period, location and conditions.
• The guidebook maker. You can collect the offers you want into a personal shopping guidebook and save it as an image or a PDF. Having it on your phone means you can show a store the exact offer without needing a connection.
• Nearby Benefits and the AI chat. If you allow location access, the site can show offers close to where you are standing, and an AI chat answers basic questions about the festival.

On the ground, the Welcome Center listed on the official site is at Noon Square, 1st floor, 14 Myeongdong-gil in Myeongdong, Seoul. It is the easiest place to ask questions in person once it opens. For anything else during your trip, call the Korea Travel Hotline on 1330. It is run by the Korea Tourism Organization, works around the clock, and has staff who speak English, Japanese and Chinese.

Two habits make the whole thing easier. Read each offer's conditions before you go, since some need a passport, a minimum spend or a specific payment method. And check the site again a few days before you fly, because new offers keep being added after the festival starts.

What Did Past Editions Offer?

The offers change every year, so treat this as background rather than a preview. Still, past editions show the shape the festival tends to take.

The previous edition ran from December 17, 2025 to February 22, 2026, 68 days in all, with about 1,750 participating businesses, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Ten Korean airlines offered discounts on flights to Korea. Hotels bundled stays with experiences such as ice-rink entry and palace passes. Department stores, duty-free shops, outlets, supermarkets and convenience stores ran gifts with purchase, money-off coupons and membership upgrades, and popular Korean beauty and fashion brands joined with their own promotions. Foreign-visitor payment apps added instant discounts and refunds at major stores.

The festival was not only about shopping. A Welcome Center at Noon Square in Myeongdong handed out coupon packs and small gifts, ran a photo booth and a lucky draw, and let visitors try on a traditional gat hat. A pink Play Truck toured Seoul, Daejeon, Busan and Jeonju with pop-up events, a Play Lounge opened in Bukchon in January, and K-Train day trips ran from Seoul to Jeonju and Taebaek. Themed experience programs covered cooking Korean food, learning K-pop choreography, watching a music show recording, skiing lessons and personal color sessions.

None of that is a promise for this edition. It does suggest what to look out for once the Special Benefit page fills up: flights first, then shopping coupons, hotel packages and experience programs.

How Should I Plan a Winter Trip Around It?

Book the flight first. Flight promotions open weeks before the festival, and each code comes with its own booking window. Pick the airline that flies from your nearest airport, note its opening date, and be ready on the day.

Choose your dates with the calendar in mind. Late December brings Christmas lights and year-end crowds. Early to mid-January is often the quietest stretch, with the department-store sales on and shorter lines. The Lunar New Year holiday falls in early February 2027, in the last week of the festival, and some smaller shops and restaurants close for a day or two around it.

Stay near the action. Myeongdong is where the Welcome Center is listed, and it is a short subway ride from most of Seoul's shopping streets. If you prefer a quieter base, choose a hotel near a line that reaches Myeongdong directly.

Pack for real cold. January days in Seoul are often below freezing, so plan indoor time between shopping streets: department stores, underground malls and cafes. Combine the festival offers with the tax refund for visitors at Tax Free stores, which applies whether or not a sale is running, and keep your passport handy for both.

Finally, leave room for the unplanned. In the last edition, the Bukchon lounge opened a month into the festival, and new events kept appearing along the way. Check the Event page every week or so while you are in Korea.