SOUTH KOREA. Lotte Duty Free put its trading difficulties behind it to host a highly successful 26th Family Festival on Friday and Saturday at Jamsil Sports Complex, Seoul.
The Festival is the country’s leading hallyu marketing event. Each year, top music, TV and film stars participate.
Big name acts, including EXO, Twice, Hwang Chi-Yeul, Apink, Elris and NCT all played on day one, with other blockbuster stars such as Lee Seung-chul, Guckkasten and Ailee appearing the following day.
“Lotte Duty Free will continue to strive not only for the development of the domestic tourism industry but also to aid the socially disadvantaged” – Lotte Duty Free CEO Sun-wook Jang
Lotte has been hard hit this year by the collapse in Chinese tourism linked to the THAAD anti-missile system dispute between South Korea and China.
While a concert exclusively for foreigners was cancelled due to the row, around 1,000 VIP customers still attended the family festival from South East Asia, Japan and China. All the recent problems were forgotten as over 100,000 people poured into the two-day celebration of hallyu (Korean wave) music and culture.
This year the travel retailer, in partnership with the Seoul Metropolitan Council for Social Welfare, invited 2,000 people to the Festival. The event also raised funds for child welfare through a KW1,000 (US$0.88) donation from each official photo taken with members of Lotte Duty Free’s acclaimed animated characters, Tanki’s Family (pictured below).
As revealed by The Moodie Davitt Report, Tanki’s Family was conceived, designed and animated by the Lotte Duty Free team as a breakthrough Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project.
Together with other CSR activities, Lotte Duty Free will donate some KW50 million (US$44,000) from the event to those in need.
Some 1,000 VIP customers from Southeast Asia, Japan and China watched the Festival. In addition, participants in ‘Miss Teen 2017’, a Vietnamese youth talent programme being filmed by Vietnamese state-run broadcaster VTC, attended.
Lotte Duty Free CEO Sun-wook Jang said, “Although Lotte Duty Free is currently experiencing a difficult situation, we are still hosting the Family Festival in return for the love that customers have shown. Lotte Duty Free will continue to strive not only for the development of the domestic tourism industry but also to aid the socially disadvantaged. “
