SOUTH KOREA. Airport arrivals duty free shopping, first introduced at Incheon International Airport on 31 May, will get a big boost in early 2020 when tobacco is added to the categories on offer.
“The arrival duty free stores will start selling tobacco products in February 2020,” Entas Duty Free CEO David Yu told The Moodie Davitt Report today. “This should more than double our arrival duty free revenue since the expected product mix [of the main categories] will be liquor 25%, tobacco 50%, and cosmetics 20%.”
As previously reported, the allowance has been set at ten packs (cartons of 200) of cigarettes.
Tobacco was a key omission from the initial range of categories permitted to be sold on arrival. Tobacco will not only provide a sales boost in its own right but also drive footfall into the stores and boost other categories.
Hamstrung by the absence of tobacco, sales on arrival have proved disappointing. Yonhap News Agency today reported a Finance Ministry survey of 1,000 people, which found that 60.3 percent of respondents were satisfied with arrival duty free shops. However, only 1.5 percent of foreign and Korean nationals who entered the country between May and November bought goods on arrival.
Citing the Ministry, the Yonhap report said that other airports and seaports in South Korea will also be allowed to set up arrival duty free stores.
As reported, an arrivals store is already under construction at Gimpo Airport in Seoul.
