Sales to foreigners at Incheon soften in January as FIT spending declines : Moodie Davitt Report

SOUTH KOREA. Duty-free sales nationwide (excluding inflight retail) in January rose +12.2% year-on-year but fell -4.3% month-on-month to KRW1,070,894,470,519 (US$731.9 million), according to Korea Duty Free Association figures.

Customer numbers increased +12.6% year-on-year and +5.9% month-on-month to 2,575,437.

Sales to foreigners (mainly Chinese) grew +13.5% year-on-year to KRW786,644,707,840 (US$537.7 million), an -8.3% decline over December 2025. Foreign customer numbers rose +26.8% year-on-year to 942,422, up +0.48% over December 2025,

“Foreigner sales at Incheon International Airport decreased a lot from December. Overall spending per head of foreigners is decreasing steadily in terms of individual customers.”

Purchases by Koreans grew +8.85% year-on-year to KRW284,249,762,679 (US$194.3 million), an +8.94% month-on-month gain. Korean customer numbers increased +5.7% year-on-year and +9.2% month-on-month to 1,633,015.

Duty-free sales nationwide rose +12.2% year-on-year in January but fell -4.3% month-on-month. Customer numbers increased +12.6% over January 2025 and +5.9% month-on-month to 2,575,437. All figures courtesy of Korea Duty Free Association. Click on tables and charts to expand.

Channel analysis

Downtown duty-free sales rose by +10.5% over January 2025 to KRW771,321,444,670 (US$527.2 million), though that represented a -3.7% month-on-month easing. Foreigners generated 83.5% of downtown sales on a 44% share of total downtown customer numbers.

Drilling down further, sales to foreigners in downtown duty-free stores rose +9.6% year-on-year to KRW643,845,989,536 (US$) but declined -5.4% over December 2025.

Foreign spending at airports falls sharply from December

What of the airport departures business (excluding offshore duty free)? Sales grew +18.5% year-on-year to KRW252,296,337,143 (US$17.24 million), a -7.4% fall compared with December 2025. Customer numbers rose +5.5% year-on-year and +5.3% month-on-month to 1,116,505.

As reported, Korean duty-free sales nationwide fell -11.9% year-on-year in 2025 to KRW12,534,040,790,592 (US$8.6 billion) despite a +3.6% rise in customer numbers to 29,477,804. That is the lowest annual total since 2016 and a fall of almost -50% from the pre-pandemic 2019 level.

Airport duty-free departures sales to foreigners rose +35.2% year-on-year to KRW141,570,514,448 (almost US$96.8 million) but dropped -19.8% over December 2025. On-airport sales to departing Koreans in January rose +2.4% year-on-year and an encouraging +15.5% month-on-month to KRW110,725,822,695 (US$757 million).

“Foreigner sales at Incheon International Airport decreased a lot from December,” a senior Korean duty-free executive told The Moodie Davitt Report. “Overall spending per head of foreigners is decreasing steadily in terms of individual customers. The overall market is stagnating.” ✈