Korea Duty Free Association to Host 'Korea Duty Free Festa' in May

The Nation's First Nationwide Duty-Free Shopping Festival Held for One Month
Featuring Various Programs Including Price Discounts and Cultural Events

The Korea Duty Free Association announced on the 28th that, together with the Korea Customs Service, it will hold the country's first nationwide duty-free shopping festival, 'Korea Duty Free Festa 2023,' for one month from the 1st to the 31st of next month.

Korea Duty Free Festa is the first nationwide event in the duty-free industry jointly organized by the public and private sectors to expand the attraction of foreign tourists and improve the travel balance through domestic consumption promotion. It will be held throughout May, the peak travel season, leveraging the recent recovery in domestic travel. According to the Ministry of Justice, as of March, the number of foreign arrivals was 837,891, an increase of 675% compared to the same period last year.

'Korea Duty Free Festa 2023' poster [Photo by Korea Duty Free Association].

This event will be participated in both online and offline by 16 duty-free store operators nationwide, including duty-free shops in Seoul, Incheon, Busan, and Jeju, as well as regional duty-free shops in Daegu, Muan, and Ulsan. It consists of joint events involving all duty-free shops and individual events highlighting each operator's unique features.

The joint events include up to 20% price discounts online and offline, shopping support funds (reward points), and prize giveaways such as tablet PCs and robot vacuum cleaners for domestic and foreign tourists using duty-free shops during the festival period.

Individual events with specific themes will also be held by each duty-free store. These include cultural and tourism events such as K-pop concerts, visits to local tourist attractions, collaborative exhibitions, giveaways like hotel accommodation vouchers leveraging each operator's strengths, and additional discounts beyond the joint events.

During the event period, a 'Duty-Free Shopping Map' will be created and distributed to allow tourists to easily and conveniently view the locations of duty-free shops nationwide along with nearby tourist attractions and popular restaurants. The Duty-Free Shopping Map will be produced in foreign languages (English, Chinese, Japanese) so that not only domestic tourists but also foreign tourists can use it. To ensure easy access for tourists, it will be available with QR codes alongside leaflets at major airports, ports, and Gwanghwamun Square.

Yoo Shin-yeol, chairman of the Korea Duty Free Association, which organized this event, said, "As 'Korea Duty Free Festa 2023' is held at an important time ahead of the recovery of the tourism market during the first golden holiday after the easing of quarantine measures, we hope that the domestic duty-free industry, which has been stagnant due to COVID-19, will use this event as an opportunity for promotion and sales growth and further restore the global competitiveness of Korea's duty-free industry."

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