SOUTH KOREA. Another new player has entered the country’s fast-changing travel retail market with Hyundai Paint Company opening a 76sq m duty free shop at the new Busan seaport terminal on 31 August.
Busan is the second-largest city in South Korea after Seoul and its largest port. Ferries make several daily sailings to and from the Japanese city of Fukuoka while the port is also drawing an increasing number of cruise vessels from China.
Hyundai Paint Company won the concession after an open tender limited to small & medium enterprises (SMEs).
The old terminal, which was in an isolated location, featured a small duty free store run by Korea Tourism Organization. It has been replaced by the spectacular new facility which celebrated its Grand Opening on 26 August before operations commenced fully a few days later.
“A lot of people neglected this port because the former terminal only had an old, small shop but this is totally different, in an impressive location,” a leading Korean travel retail executive told The Moodie Report.
“It’s right across the street from the KTX high-speed railway terminal,” said another. “You can travel from Seoul by train in three hours, across the street and go straight in Japan in a few hours. There’s a whole urban project around the KTX station and the new seaport. There will be an opera hall, a baseball stadium and a whole new economic development around the seaport.
“The main customers for the shop will be Koreans, Japanese and more and more Chinese as the cruise business grows.”
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This Korea Joongang Daily report highlights the magnitude and modernity of the new international terminal passenger building |
