Tourist Hotspot Myeongdong Sees 40% Drop in Foot Traffic Due to COVID-19

[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] The floating population near Myeongdong Station in Seoul, the number one tourist commercial district in South Korea, has sharply declined due to the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

According to the Commercial Information Research Institute on the 7th, an analysis of statistics from the Small Enterprise and Market Service under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups showed that the average daily floating population within a 400m radius of Myeongdong Station commercial district was 78,958 in March. This is 19.3% less than the 97,832 recorded in the previous month and represents a 39.2% decrease compared to 129,862 in December last year before the spread of COVID-19.

This is the result of the near halt in foreign tourist inflow due to the global spread of COVID-19. Researcher Hyuntaek Cho of the Commercial Information Research Institute analyzed, "Although the spread of COVID-19 has entered a stabilization phase, the domestic economy continues to slump, causing offline commercial districts to rapidly decline. Especially, the frozen atmosphere in commercial districts like Myeongdong and Insadong, which were frequented by many foreign tourists, continues."

Notably, while the Myeongdong commercial district is in recession, pharmacies have been bustling with both domestic and foreign customers purchasing masks. According to an analysis of statistics from SK Telecom's big data service platform GeoVision by the Commercial Information Research Institute, the estimated sales of pharmacies in the Myeongdong commercial district were about 45 million KRW in January, an increase of 10 million KRW compared to the estimated sales of about 35 million KRW in December last year. Although the estimated sales in March, when the five-day mask distribution system began, decreased to 39.82 million KRW compared to January, many domestic and foreign customers still visit the pharmacy-dense areas within the Myeongdong commercial district.

Researcher Cho forecasted, "The spread of COVID-19 is decreasing, and the government is also providing emergency disaster relief funds to revitalize the domestic economy, so there is potential for a rebound in the atmosphere of offline stores."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.