November 24, 2024

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Shoppers browse duty-free stores in Gimhae International Airport in Busan. (Yonhap)

With the arrival of COVID-19’s endemic phase, South Korea’s duty-free shops are starting to see a long-awaited business recovery as a growing number of group tours are booked, industry sources said Tuesday.

According to a Lotte Duty Free official, some 150 tourists from Malaysia shopped at the Myeong-dong branch for an hour Tuesday before returning to their country.

“It’s the first time in two years since COVID-19 started that a group of over 100 tourists visited our stores. Two other groups, from the Philippines and Thailand, are scheduled to visit this month as well,” the official said.

Some 170 Thai tourists flew in on Monday to Jeju Island and shopped at Lotte and Shilla duty-free shops. They had arrived on the island via visa-free entry, the official added. Starting from June 1, the Jeju and Yangyang, Gangwon Province, airports have resumed the visa-waiver program that has been suspended for over two years due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Shinsegae Duty Free said approximately 30 tourists from Vietnam visited its Myeong-dong branch on May 27.

Amid growing expectations for a revitalization of the group tour business, which accounts for 80 percent of total duty-free sales, stores are rushing to make renovations.

Lotte Duty Free’s Myeong-dong branch recently installed three additional elevators exclusively for duty-free customers. Shinsegae Duty Free has also completed renovation work of stores in Myeong-dong that sell electronic appliances and food products.

“Since group tours in Japan and China are still facing restrictions, international tourists -- especially Southeast Asians -- are coming to Korea, which has started to push for pre-pandemic recovery with reduced quarantine measures,” said the official from Lotte Duty Free.

From Wednesday, the government will lift a seven-day quarantine mandate for unvaccinated arrivals from overseas. It will also normalize the number of international flights and scrap the curfew for late-night and early morning flights at Korea’s main gateway Incheon Airport.

By Byun Hye-jin (hyejin2@heraldcorp.com)