Lotte Duty Free, Osaka Kansai Airport Store Renovated as 'Prestige Boutique'

Lotte Duty Free Kansai Airport Store Gucci Shop (Photo by Lotte Duty Free).

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Yuri] Lotte Duty Free announced on the 1st that it has transformed its Kansai Airport branch into a luxury store. This move is described as a proactive measure to prepare for post-COVID-19 tourism demand and to reorganize its overseas store portfolio.

Lotte Duty Free Kansai Airport branch completed its renovation by sequentially opening global luxury brands such as Bulgari, Bottega Veneta, and Gucci last month, following the opening of the Loewe store in January. Tiffany, a world-renowned jewelry house, is scheduled to open in the second half of this year. The plan is to present customers with a total of six brands in a 443㎡ (approximately 134 pyeong) 'Prestige Boutique.'

Amid the prolonged COVID-19 situation, Lotte Duty Free renewed its store to prepare for the future and now holds the largest number of boutique stores among duty-free operators at Kansai International Airport. Lotte Duty Free said it created stores reflecting each brand’s unique values and trendy concepts to meet the expectations of global customers using the airport. The newly renovated Gucci boutique is described as a 'cash cow' store, ranking among the top sales brands in the Kansai Airport duty-free zone and is the only Gucci duty-free store in the Kansai region.

Lee Gap, CEO of Lotte Duty Free, said, "Based on over 40 years of operational experience, we will successfully establish the newly renovated Kansai Airport branch," adding, "We will make thorough preparations to overcome the crisis and take another leap forward."

Meanwhile, before COVID-19, the annual number of international departures at Kansai International Airport was about 12 million in 2019, making it the second largest among Japanese international airports after Narita International Airport. The main customer base of the Kansai Airport branch includes approximately 4 million Japanese departing passengers annually, 3.25 million Chinese, and 1.5 million Koreans.

To target travelers in the East Asia region, Lotte Duty Free entered the Japanese market for the first time in the domestic duty-free industry by acquiring the duty-free business rights for Terminal 1 at Kansai International Airport in 2014. Subsequently, in March 2016, it opened and operates its first downtown duty-free store in Japan, the Tokyo Ginza branch.

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