Lotte Duty Free attracted over 100,000 people to its 25^th ‘Lotte Duty Free Family Festival’ which the company held at the weekend (19-20 May) at the Seoul Jamsil Sports complex in the main Olympic stadium.

 

The 25^th festival coincides with the 50^th anniversary year of the Lotte Group and the reopening of the Lotte Duty Free World Tower store (earlier this year).

 

Concert performers included South Korean girl group Mamamoo, popular and prolific singer and musician, Kim Gun-mo. Lotte claims that the Lotte Duty Free Family Festival, is Korea’s leading Hallyu marketing event.

 

The concert is timely, as Korea’s tourism industry struggles to overcome the impact of China’s ban on group tours to the country. As reported by TRBusiness, tax free sales in Korea remained in decline in March owing to ongoing political tensions with China surrounding the stationing of the US-supplied Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea.

 

IMPACTS TO THE KOREAN TOURISM INDUSTRY

According to data from tax refund specialist Global Blue, Korean tax free sales dropped -32% during March. Despite the decline in duty free and tax free sales and the impact to the Korean tourist industry overall, Lotte attracted 1,000 ‘VIP customers’ from Southeast Asia, Japan and China to the concert at the weekend.

 

Lotte Duty Free CEO, Jang Seon-wook, commented: “We held the Lotte Duty Free Family Festival this year in order to continue promoting the Korean Wave that can become a great asset of Korea tourism to revitalise the domestic tourism industry. I will continue to pursue projects that can contribute to revitalisation.”