SOUTH KOREA. Visit Korea’s annual shopping tourism festival for foreign visitors, ‘Korea Grand Sale’, began last Friday (20 January), led by a series of high-profile duty free retail promotions.
The festival, which runs from 20 January to 28 February, is designed to increase spending by foreign visitors and to highlight the country’s commercial and cultural attractions. It involves a combination of shopping and other tourist activities as well as promoting the ‘Korean Wave’ (Hallyu) cultural and entertainment concept.
Korea Grand Sale includes promotions and special discounts from airlines, hotels, duty free shops, department stores, theme parks and other tourist-focused businesses. To boost sales, individual Chinese tourists are being encouraged to make purchases via UnionPay. Chinese visitors account for almost one in two arrivals to South Korea.
In celebration of the event, foreign tourists arriving at Incheon International Airport on Friday received a grand welcome with promotional materials in English, Chinese, and Japanese distributed at the arrival gates. The festive atmosphere was boosted by tour guides dressed in traditional Korean costumes.
Seoul travel retailer Galleria 63 Duty Free is offering up to -50% discounts on selected items along with free gifts. Fellow sector newcomer Doota Duty Free is featuring a -30% discount on some lines and a further -5% reduction from 9p.m. until midnight (Doota is Seoul’s only downtown duty free retailer trading at night). The Doota Mall in Dongdaemun (in the same building as Doota Duty Free) has created a series of events dubbed Must-Buy Week, Must-See Week, Must-Do Week and Must-Eat Week.
Doota Duty Free and Galleria 63 Duty Free were recently the subjects of extensive profiles by The Moodie Davitt Report.
