SOUTH KOREA. Jeju Tourism Organization (JTO) opened a new duty free store at Seongsan Port, Seogwipo City, in South Korea’s Jeju province on 26 December.
The 133sq m store sells on a ‘domestic duty free’ basis to Korean travellers from the mainland (or Jeju residents travelling to the mainland) who can shop up to six times a year. The duty free allowance is currently US$400. But that may be about to change
Local pressure is mounting to increase the allowance to US$800, either all duty free, or US$400 duty free with the other US$400 taxable. Either plan would stimulate the sale of higher-end items, much as happened on Hainan Island, China, when the allowance was raised from RMB5,000 (US$800) to RMB8,000 (US$1,275) in November 2012, leading to a massive surge in sales.
For now, the store sells liquor, cigarettes and red ginseng, “with more items planned”, The Jeju Weekly reported.
“It is a very small store run by JTO to serve Korean people,” said a local source. “It used to be run [until 2005] by JDC (which runs the Jeju airport domestic duty free store and a Jeju seaport store on the same basis).”
 |
How the news of the opening was reported by Jeju Weekly |
 |
Besides the seaport store, JTO runs a major duty free store at the Jeju International Convention Center (Photo: Martin Moodie) |
