May Duty-Free Industry Sees Slight Rebound as Domestic Visits to Jeju Increase

Foreign Customer Numbers Continue to Decline

On the 18th, the duty-free shop at Terminal 1 of Incheon International Airport was quiet due to the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] With air routes blocked, visits to designated duty-free shops by domestic tourists who visited Jeju last month increased, leading to a slight rebound in overall domestic duty-free sales compared to the previous month. However, the number of foreign visitors continued to decline.

According to the Korea Duty Free Association on the 28th, domestic duty-free sales in May amounted to approximately 1.0179 trillion won, a 3% increase from April's approximately 986.7 billion won.

Duty-free sales had been declining for three consecutive months since January, before the full onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when sales recorded approximately 2.0247 trillion won. Sales fell below 1 trillion won in April but showed a slight rebound last month.

Domestic Duty-Free Shop Sales Trends. Source=Korea Duty Free Shop Association

The number of duty-free visitors in May was 466,685, a 31.6% increase from about 354,000 in April. Although the number of foreign visitors decreased to about 91,000 compared to April, the number of domestic visitors increased by more than 100,000, resulting in an overall increase in visitors. The proportion of foreign visitors dropped from 33% in April to 19% in May.

It was found that 93% of domestic visitors used designated duty-free shops in the Jeju area, which domestic residents can also use. In fact, sales at designated duty-free shops increased by more than 10 billion won, from 29 billion won in April to approximately 39 billion won last month.

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