A highway rest area that travelers often visit during the Lunar New Year holiday: what is the most popular menu item there?
According to data from the Korea Expressway Corporation submitted to Ahn Tae-jun, a member of the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure, and Transport Committee from the Democratic Party, the most popular menu item during the Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays from 2019 to 2024 was Americano coffee. It generated sales ranging from 1 to 2 billion KRW every holiday, totaling 19.934 billion KRW. The coffee is perfect for a quick break and fighting drowsiness.
Following Americano, walnut cookies (16.91 billion KRW), udon (11.75 billion KRW), and rice cake skewers (10.2 billion KRW) were also particularly popular items during the holiday periods.
As for price changes, udon saw the highest price increase in the past five years at highway rest areas. Its average price last year was 6,619 KRW, a rise of 24.5% from 5,315 KRW in 2019. Udon prices have increased annually by 2-10%.
Second in terms of price increase was pork cutlet, which rose by 24.2% from 8,666 KRW in 2019 to 10,766 KRW last year, making it the only item among the top 10 with a price over 10,000 KRW. Walnut cookies saw a 20.2% increase from 4,014 KRW to 4,823 KRW.
Café latte (4,661 KRW → 5,020 KRW, 7.7%) and ramen (4,333 KRW → 4,710 KRW, 8.7%) had relatively lower price increases.
The highway rest area with the highest sales during last year’s Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays was the Haengdamdo Service Area on the Seohaean Expressway, with sales of 2.316 billion KRW. Second was the Deokpyeong Service Area on the Yeongdong Expressway, with 1.88 billion KRW, and third was the Siheung Sky Rest Area on the Metropolitan Area 1st Ring Expressway, with 1.287 billion KRW.
During last year’s Lunar New Year holiday, the average amount spent per person on meals, snacks, and coffee at highway rest areas was approximately 15,000 KRW.
According to KB Kookmin Card’s analysis of transactions and amounts spent by its users at rest areas during last year’s Lunar New Year holiday (February 9-12), the average was 1.7 transactions per person, amounting to 15,414 KRW.
Sales typically increase the most on the first day of the holiday, on the day of the holiday itself, and the day after. For last year’s Lunar New Year, sales on the first day (February 9) increased by 184% compared to the daily average of the previous two weeks, peaked on New Year’s Day (February 10) with a 236% increase, and were up by 182% the following day (February 11). However, on the last day of the holiday (February 12), the sales increase rate dropped to 73%.