Lotte signs MOU with Klook; Southeast Asia’s largest travel booking platform

SOUTH KOREA. Lotte Duty Free has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Southeast Asia’s largest online travel booking platform Klook to expand regional business in the region via marketing activities.

A signing ceremony took place on 27 November at Lotte Duty Free World Tower. It was attended by Lotte Duty Free Chief of Marketing Kim Bo-jun and Head of Marketing for Asia Kandy Cheung.

The agreement will see Lotte Duty Free boost its marketing and promotional activities for foreign customers, while Klook will target Korean clients

Founded in 2014, Hong Kong-based Klook’s platforms span travel booking, tours and activities. Klook opened its first branch in Korea in January this year, adding to the company’s 13 offices in Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Taiwan, Manila and Dubai. Last year, Klook facilitated 5 million travel reservations. It operates multi-language pages in Korean, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), English, Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian.

“This year Lotte Duty Free is opening a store in downtown Bangkok in Thailand and another at Da Nang Airport in Vietnam,” said Kim. Via the agreement, Lotte Duty Free will carry out various promotions and PR activities for its customers in Southeast Asia with Klook.

The retailer is offering coupons worth KRW10,000 (U$9.30) to Korean customers spending over US$100 with Klook. These can be redeemed at Lotte Duty Free shops on purchases over KRW100,000 (US$93).

Discount coupons are also available for foreign customers using Klook, advertised in languages ​​including Taiwanese, Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian. Lotte Duty Free’s social media strategy includes the recruitment of ‘power bloggers’ such as China’s Wang Hong to spread the message.

The move is part of Lotte Duty Free’s diversification strategy to attract customers from around Asia. The retailer was faced with a backlash from its heavy reliance on Chinese tourist spend when China banned group tours to South Korea earlier this year. A dispute over South Korea’s deployment of US anti-missile system THAAD saw Chinese arrivals drop –66.6%, -64.1%, -66.4%, -69.3%, -61.2%, -56.1% and -49.3% from April through October.

The apparent resolution of the dispute last month has sparked signs of recovery in Chinese tourism to South Korea, particularly as China is easing its ban on group tours to the country.

Lotte Duty Free continues discussions with travel agencies in markets such as Hong Kong, Thailand, and Vietnam as part of its diversification drive. In the first half of this year, the retailer has attended several Southeast Asian travel expositions.

In September, Lotte Duty Free’s multi-channel publicity marketing campaign included the sponsorship of Vietnamese television show Miss Teen 2017 to advertise the Lotte brand. The youth audition programme was aired on VTC, a state-run broadcaster in Vietnam.

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