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S.Korea's duty-free sales soar as Chinese tourists return

The Chosunilbo

The Chosunilbo

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Chinese visitors have been returning to Korea after the MERS scare last year, boosting sales at duty-free shops, department stores and superstores.

The Korea Tourism Organization on Thursday said more than half a million Chinese visited Korea for three consecutive months this year to total 1.6 million in the first quarter, up 15 percent from the same period last year.

At the height of the MERS outbreak in July last year, the number of Chinese visitors shrank to 250,000, but by September it had started growing again to the previous year's level. A KTO staffer said, "If this trend continues, this year's target of 8 million can easily be achieved."

Sales of Lotte's duty-free shops generated by Chinese customers in the first quarter rose 50 percent on-year. At Shilla, sales to Chinese visitors grew from 29 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015 to 35 percent in the first quarter this year.

At superstores Chinese visitors snapped up Korean instant noodles, cookies, dried seaweed and herbal shampoo, resulting in first-quarter sales surging 98 percent at E-Mart in Yongsan and Lotte Mart in Seoul Station.

(THE CHOSUNILBO)