250 Vietnamese Tourists Visit Shinsegae Duty Free Myeongdong Store "Largest in 3 Years"

Vietnamese group tourists visiting Shinsegae Duty Free Myeongdong branch. (Photo by Shinsegae Duty Free)

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] Shinsegae Duty Free announced on the 8th that the largest group of tourists since the COVID-19 pandemic visited its Myeongdong branch.

The visiting group is from Manulife Vietnam, a global insurance company, consisting of about 250 people. Approximately 180 visited from Hanoi the day before, and about 70 arrived from Ho Chi Minh City on the same day.

Incentive tourism is a travel program provided by companies as a reward to employees who have achieved excellent performance. Since personal expenses are low, shopping-related spending is typically higher than that of regular group tourists. For this reason, competition to attract such tourists at the national level is fierce.

Competition to attract this group was even more intense to revitalize the tourism market, which has been struggling due to COVID-19, and it is said that Korea was chosen thanks to the popularity of the Korean Wave.

The reason for visiting Shinsegae Duty Free is also because it houses popular ‘K-Fashion’ and ‘K-Beauty’ brands such as I.O.I, Romantic Crown, Evisu, Timburins, and V&A. In fact, tourists purchased various Korean brands including Sulwhasoo, O Hui, Stylenanda, Innisfree, Vedi Vero, Gentle Monster, Fila, Discovery, and Stretch Angels.

Starting with the Vietnamese group tourists in April, the total number of Southeast Asian group tourists who visited Shinsegae Duty Free this year reached 5,250 as of the 2nd. Although this is about 4% compared to 2019, the number has rapidly grown from 40 in April to over 4,000 in November.

Shin Seokhyun, Head of Overseas Sales at Shinsegae Duty Free, stated, “Since the decision to resume visa-free entry on the 1st, the number of groups has been increasing rapidly. Shinsegae Duty Free will strive to provide a pleasant shopping environment, attract brands with the latest trends, and develop various contents to satisfy tourists.”

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