Incheon International Airport is seeing booming sales from Korean beauty brands, with growth at +35% outstripping the general beauty trend by a factor of three.

 

Incheon International Airport Corporation generated duty free and travel retail sales last year of KRW 1,946.2bn ($1.73bn), up +15% up from KRW 1,6987bn ($1.53bn) in 2011 and its biggest product category beauty – with a 35% share of sales – reached $605.5m.

 

While growth of the beauty category at +12%, last year, was below the average of +15%, Korean beauty brands buoyed the business with growth +35% in 2012 and have been taking market share away from larger international beauty houses.

 

IIAC tells TRBusiness.com: “Nowadays, Korea beauty brands are doing a good job with sales promotion in China and Japan so the brands are well known to Chinese and Japanese travellers.” BB creams in particular continue to see extraordinary increases in excess of +50% compared to 2011.

 

According to IIAC, approximately 85% of DF&TR beauty sales at Incheon are led by Korean, Japanese and Chinese customers with growth rates rising fastest for the Chinese (+45%) and the Japanese (+21%).

 

Although beauty remains a strong product sector and is expected to see continuous growth in the future, 2012’s rise of +12% was below the annual average increase of +18% seen over the past three years.