SOUTH KOREA. Strong opposition is mounting to a rumoured government abolition of the domestic duty free tobacco allowance on Jeju Island.
On Tuesday The Korea Herald reported that the national government had proposed banning duty free tobacco sales on Jeju.
Having verified the report with local travel retailers, The Moodie Report can confirm that the threat only applies to domestic duty free sales to Korean nationals and not to the traditional duty free business (airport and downtown) selling to international travellers [underlining the importance of our policy of always verifying newspaper and other local media reports at source].
Korean mainland visitors can currently buy one carton of 200 cigarettes duty free when they visit Jeju, up to a maximum six times a year, as part of the long-established ‘domestic duty free’ channel created to fund tourism infrastructure on the island.
Abolition would drastically affect airport and downtown retailers Jeju Tourism Organization and JDC Duty Free.
However, local sources told The Moodie Report that they confident that the ban will not go ahead in the face of strong Jeju opposition and trenchant criticism from powerful pro-tobacco consumer group “˜I love Smoking’.
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Korean mainland visitors to Jeju Island can buy 200 cigarettes in ‘domestic duty free’ (downtown and on-airport) up to six times a year |
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Jeju Airport domestic duty free retailer JDC would be badly affected by any ban but opposition to abolition is very strong |
