Jeju Tourism Organization to Reopen Failed Duty-Free Shop at Seongsanpohang Harbor

Jeju Tourism Organization Seongsanpo Port Duty-Free Shop Exterior. Photo by Jeju Tourism Organization

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Chang-won] Jeju Tourism Organization, which wasted residents' tax money on the duty-free shop business, is reopening a duty-free shop at Seongsanpo Port.

Jeju Tourism Organization (President Park Hong-bae) announced on the 7th that it will complete preparations and reopen the duty-free shop following the launch of the ferry passenger ship "Sunrise Jeju," which connects Seongsanpo Port and Nokdong Port in Goheung-gun, Jeollanam-do, last month.

Jeju Tourism Organization opened the Seongsanpo Port duty-free shop on December 24, 2013, and operated the duty-free shop at Seongsanpo Port for about two years until October 2015.

Afterwards, the organization had to suspend duty-free shop operations due to the suspension of the high-speed ferry (Orange-ho) that connected Seongsan and Noryeok Port in Jangheung-gun, Jeollanam-do.

Since this reopening of the Seongsanpo Port duty-free shop is taking place after approximately five years, Jeju Tourism Organization has been preparing operations to provide better duty-free shopping services to customers using Seongsanpo Port.

The organization expects to increase customer satisfaction by creating the Seongsanpo Port duty-free shop with a store and auxiliary facilities totaling 163.20㎡ (49 pyeong), which is somewhat larger and more comfortable than the previous facility (133.44㎡, 40 pyeong), applying a more pleasant interior.

Jeju Tourism Organization plans to focus on representative duty-free products such as red ginseng, liquor, and tobacco, while also arranging the store mainly with popular products like perfumes and fashion items (bags, sunglasses, etc.).

Additionally, by fulfilling the shopping infrastructure function in cooperation with the local area such as Seongsan-eup, the duty-free shop aims to contribute to the local economy and actively carry out various social contribution activities.

Park Hong-bae, President of Jeju Tourism Organization, said, "With the resumption of passenger ship operations at Seongsanpo Port, we expect it to greatly help the local economy," adding, "Jeju Tourism Organization's duty-free shop will do its best to meet customer expectations and fulfill its public functions such as social contributions."

He continued, "Following the designated duty-free shop and internet duty-free shop located at the Jungmun Tourist Complex Jeju International Convention Center (ICC JEJU), we expect that the newly reopened duty-free shop will also provide comfortable duty-free shopping opportunities to residents and tourists."

Meanwhile, the tourism organization entered the downtown duty-free shop market after receiving preliminary approval for a new downtown duty-free shop license in Jeju in July 2015, stating that profits earned from operating duty-free shops would be returned to the local community.

At the time of opening, the organization boldly claimed it could achieve sales of 100 billion KRW and net profits of 36 billion KRW within five years. Despite concerns that it would lose out to large corporations operating Lotte and Shilla duty-free shops, the organization started the duty-free shop business, ignoring such criticism. However, it returned the duty-free license and withdrew after four years of operation.

Subsequently, it ventured into the foreigner-only duty-free shop business but failed and closed in April this year. Over four years, it recorded a cumulative loss of 26.7 billion KRW, and when including personnel expenses supported by Jeju Province, product inventory losses, and the construction costs of the international passenger terminal port duty-free shop, losses exceeded 50 billion KRW. However, there was no person held responsible for the failure of the duty-free shop business, drawing criticism from the local community.

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