Bunnik Tours Launches Premium South Korea In-Style Tour With Founder On Board

Bunnik Tours has run its inaugural South Korea and Jeju Island In-Style Tour, a 9-day, 10-night premium small-group product that co-owner Dennis Bunnik personally accompanied to test the itinerary before it scales.

The departure carried 16 Australian passengers, guided by Monica Lee, with Bunnik using the trip to adjust pacing, swap itinerary items and refine the offering ahead of broader sales. The tour covers Seoul, Jeju Island and Busan, positioning South Korea as a growth market for the Adelaide-based operator as demand shifts toward both the destination and small-group formats.

"When we put our name to a new tour, we've got to make sure that it works," Bunnik said. "You can only be as successful as a company if you've got a really strong connection between what happens in head office and what happens on the road."

How Bunnik is building the product

The operator splits responsibilities across three layers. Head office owns the customer knowledge; a destination management company (DMC) leader named Jay handles operational feasibility in Korea; the on-road guide team manages practicalities.

Bunnik framed the guide relationship as a retention issue in a competitive labor market, noting Bunnik Tours must compete for Korean guiding talent against high-volume, high-tipping American tour business.

"She needs to know that we've got her back," he said of Lee and the itinerary changes ahead. "We need to be in lockstep."

The In-Style tier sits above Bunnik's existing Discover Korea program, with five-star hotels and fine dining as standard, plus deeper content including the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan. There, Lee recounted the 16 countries that fought alongside South Korea and the six that provided medical support in a conflict that killed hundreds of thousands, including 340 Australians. Among them was Private James Patrick Daunt of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, the youngest Allied soldier to die in the war.

"It's the ones like Monica that are really passionate about their country, about their job, their guiding, and that comes through," Bunnik said.

Who the tour sells to — and at what premium

Bunnik Tours sells only in Australia, a deliberate constraint Bunnik said builds camaraderie within groups; the inaugural departure spanned a 30-year age gap between youngest and oldest travelers. Passengers paid a premium for the In-Style tier, including single travelers who paid a supplement.

"There's a market for everyone," Bunnik said. "Travelling in large groups with multiple coaches, etc, and at the cheapest price. That's fine. But that's not us."

What Bunnik's return means for distribution

The launch marks Bunnik's first full-focus period on the family business after leaving the Council of Australian Tour Operators (CATO), where he chaired the body for a decade and sat on its board for 15 years. He said he is now accompanying more departures.

"I'm loving being back in the business full time, being able to be on the road more," he said.

He rejected a profit-first framing for the premium line. "Get the customer experience right, profit and sales and everything else follows. But you can't lead with profit," he said.

The company's testing model is generational. Marion Bunnik, who founded the tour operation more than 30 years ago and occasionally ran trips with her husband Frank, still joins some departures, according to repeat customers on the inaugural. Dennis and his brother Sacha now test most inaugural tours, and Bunnik said the next generation of the family is coming through the business.

On what comes next for the In-Style small-group range under the growing Bunnik brand, Bunnik declined to detail plans, signaling further premium destinations are under consideration as the operator expands beyond its established portfolio.