SOUTH KOREA. Reports that the government is considering regulations to permit “˜foreigner-only’ duty free shops, are driven by a desire to boost sales to South Korea’s booming Chinese visitor base, according to senior travel retail sources.
On Friday The Korea Herald said that Korea Customs Service had revealed the plan during a meeting of the Presidential Council on National Competitiveness presided over by President Lee Myung-bak.
“The new system is expected to attract more foreign travellers into the country. There have been some complaints among foreigners that duty free shops downtown are too crowded with Korean customers,” said Park Sang-deok, a customs agency official.
The Shilla Duty Free Executive Vice President, Head of Duty Free Division Jason Cha told The Moodie Report that no information other than that mentioned in the newspaper is available. “It’s too early to discuss and there would be a long process to make such a system,” he said. “But it’s sure that the Korean Government will try to do something to get more Chinese travellers for duty free shopping in Korea.”
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How The Korea Herald broke the story |
The rising importance of Mainland China visitors, also key to travel retail, was reaffirmed in June by Korea Tourism Organization figures. The Chinese are now the second-biggest visitor group to South Korea, representing 22.6% of total arrivals in June, compared to around 16% in June 2007.
Chinese arrivals gained +19.6% year-on-year in June to 179,508, representing 22.6% of arrivals. For the first six months they were up +11.5% to 919,937.
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