Duty-Free Store Monthly Sales Surpass 1.7 Trillion Won for the First Time Since COVID-19... 'With Corona' Recovery Begins

Ahead of the Chuseok holiday, the spread of COVID-19 is accelerating mainly in Seoul and the metropolitan area. On the 16th, the domestic terminal of Gimpo Airport in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, was crowded with passengers. Photo by Mun Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] In September, domestic duty-free shop sales in South Korea exceeded 1.7 trillion won for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the surge in overseas travel demand following the phased recovery of daily life (With Corona), attention is focused on whether the long-dormant duty-free industry will begin to fully revive.

According to the Korea Duty Free Shop Association on the 1st, domestic duty-free shop sales in September reached 1.7657 trillion won, a 15.71% increase compared to 1.526 trillion won in the previous month. This is the first time since February last year, when the impact of COVID-19 became serious, that sales exceeded 1.7 trillion won. After recording a sales drop from 2.0248 trillion won in January last year to 1.1026 trillion won in February, monthly sales at domestic duty-free shops had not surpassed 1.5 trillion won.

The improvement in September sales was driven by foreigners. Foreigners’ sales surged 16.52% from 1.4611 trillion won in the previous month to 1.7025 trillion won. Although the number of visitors decreased from 57,116 in the previous month to 47,921 in September, sales expanded due to a higher average spending per customer. Domestic sales slightly decreased from 64.9 billion won in the previous month to 63.2 billion won in September. The number of domestic visitors also declined from 492,567 to 463,263.

The duty-free industry expects the business conditions to revive as the sales improvement trend is detected and the With Corona movement gains momentum this month. The current sales structure, which heavily depends on Chinese traders (ttaigong), is expected to diversify further as domestic overseas travel demand strengthens. In fact, with the implementation of vaccine incentive policies?such as exemption from self-quarantine and transition to passive monitoring upon entry after visiting countries excluding high-risk COVID-19 nations for fully vaccinated individuals?overseas travel bookings to destinations like Guam and Europe are increasing.

In response to these trends, duty-free shops are quickly launching various promotions. Shinsegae Duty Free announced that it will hold a "Vaccine Completion Certification Event," providing "Some Money" (a cash-equivalent credit) and discount coupons usable at Shinsegae Duty Free to vaccinated customers. The duty-free shop stated, "As the dream of overseas travel becomes possible, expectations for travel have greatly increased," and added, "We have prepared generous online and offline promotions in line with the reopening of international tourism."

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