SOUTH KOREA. “Against last year, sales to Korean travellers dropped by approximately -20% across both downtown and airport chanels.”
That was the main take-out by a veteran South Korean travel retailer of the latest Korea Duty Free Association monthly results, although total nationwide revenues (excluding inflight retail) for June rose just under +4.0% year-on-year (+1.5% month-on-month) to KRW1,128,634,657,457 (US$801.6 million).
Customer numbers dropped -2.2% over June 2025 and -5.4% month-over-month.
Ups (foreigners) and downs (Koreans)
Breaking down the results, sales to foreigners grew +11.6% year-on-year (+7.1% month-on-month) to KRW917,607,523,365 (US$651.8 million).
That upturn was driven by a surge in foreign customer numbers to 1,279,206, up almost +32.0% over the previous June and +4.1% month-on-month.
Conversely, sales to Koreans tumbled -19.8% year-on-year (-17.1% over May 2026) to KRW211,027,134,092 (US$149.9 million) on shopper numbers down -23.2% year-on-year and -13.9% over May 2026 to 1,196,865.
Foregn shoppers drive lift in downtown channel
Sales in the critical downtown duty-free sector (worth 75.4% of the whole market) rose +4.9% over June 2025 and +2.6% month-on-month to KRW851,273,916,306 (US$604.6 million). Customer numbers were up 5.9% year-on-year but down -6.4% on the previous month.
As always, foreign nationals (predominantly Chinese) dominated sales in the channel, accounting for 89.2% of revenue.
International shoppers spent KRW759,370,232.649 (US$593.4 million), up +9.0% year-on-year and +6.8% month-on-month. However, that spending level fell well short of a +44.2% year-on-year surge in foreign customer numbers (+6.1% month-on-month) to 983,264.
Spending downtown by Korean travellers was a sharp -20.1% below June 2025 and -22.5% under May 2026 levels to KRW91,903,683,657 (US$65.3 million). Customer numbers were down -22.9% and -19.7% year-on-year and month-on-month, respectively.
Korean purchasing in airport departures slumps
Airport (departures) duty-free sales increased +4.2% year-on-year and eased -0.3% month-on-month to KRW 235,564,156,045 (US$167.3 million) on customer numbers down -1.4% over June 2025 and -4.0% compared with May 2026 to 1,140,063.
Sales to foreigners increased encouragingly, up +25.9% year-on-year and +8.6% month-on-month to KRW156,542,113,573 (US$111.2 million) on a customer base up +23.7% over June 2025 and +2.8% higher than May 2026 to 688,606.
For Koreans, it was a very different story. Sales reached KRW79,022,044,472 (US$49.7 million), -22.2% down on the same month last year and -14.1% on May 2026. Korean customer numbers reached 451,457, down -24.7% and -12.8% year-on-year and month-on-month, respectively. ✈
