SOUTH KOREA. A powerhouse line-up of K-pop stars dazzled visitors to the 32nd Lotte Duty Free Family Concert, held at the Olympic Gymnastics Stadium in Songpa-gu, Seoul, which concluded yesterday.
Around 30,000 people attended the three-day event held on 16-18 June, including an estimated 5,000 foreign visitors from China, Japan, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, the US and Europe.
The Lotte Duty Free Family Concert is a K-culture occasion designed to attract international tourists. The Korean travel retailer has hosted the event since 2006, drawing some 1 million visitors over the years.
Day one saw performances from some of the country’s top stars, including such big attractions as NCT Dream, Stray Kids, STAYC, aespa, Kingdom and Lee Chae-yeon.
The following day featured K-pop stars Sung Si-kyung, Gummy, Crush, Jukjae, Itzy, and Enhyphen. The concluding day witnessed performances from Jin Simon and Song Ga-in.
Lotte Duty Free said this year’s concert formed an important element of 2023-2024 Visit Korea Year, an event organised in association with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Visit Korea Committee, and the Korea Tourism Organization to showcase the country’s shopping, culture and tourist attractions.
Lotte Duty Free offered customised fans as commemorative gifts and hosted an event zone where visitors could receive Aespa CDs as prizes.
In addition, 200 people from underprivileged communities were invited to the first day of the performance in cooperation with the Sarangbat Together charity.
Lotte Duty Free CEO Kim Joo-Nam said, “I hope that the Lotte Duty Free Family Concert, which customers of various nationalities enjoyed together, will serve as a signal for the daily recovery and revitalisation of the duty free industry.
“We will do our best to contribute to the development of the Korean tourism industry.” ✈
