Underlining its ambition to become Vietnam’s no 1 duty free brand, Lotte Duty Free CEO Jang Sun-wook, opened the company’s large departure store and smaller arrivals store at Cam Ranh International Airport in Nha Trang on 30 June, whilst revealing that Lotte expects to generate KW700bn ($625.2m) from the space in the next 10 years.

 

As the sole duty free shop operator at the airport, Lotte will operate the combined 1,680sq m retail space (1,507sq m in departures and 173sq m in arrivals) for 10 years until 2028, carrying cosmetics, perfume, watches, fashion, liquor, and tobacco products.

 

As reported, Lotte opened a store at Danang airport last year  and it also due to open a downtown store in the same region this year.

 

The new international terminal at Nha Trang Camaran International Airport stands two floors tall with a footprint of 50,000sq m with a growing passenger capacity, expected to reach 8m outbound travellers by 2030.

 

TOURIST HOTSPOT

According to Lotte, Nha Trang is the most popular tourist destination in central Vietnam, welcoming over 2m foreign tourists in 2017. This number is expected to rise by nearly 20% by the end of this year.

 

 

Lotte also reveals that the Chinese dominate in terms of share of the total number of tourists visiting the region (58.9%) with Russians also travelling in high numbers (27.4%).

 

Koreans make up about 2% of the total number of foreign tourists, with this expected to increase in future.

 

In an attempt to cater to an increase in tourists, Nha Trang is building more than 10 four-star and five-star hotels, with six shopping malls waiting in the wings. In addition, it plans to develop an eco-tourism program such as a ‘spa and craft village’ and develop marine leisure facilities and programs such as developing a yacht marina.

 

 

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

For its part, Lotte Duty Free plans to expand its various social contribution projects and has cooperated with local medical law authorities in Vietnam to enable children to receive surgery and other treatments at medical facilities in Danang.

 

In October of last year, Lotte funded surgery for six Vietnamese children and plans to replicate medical support such as this every year.

 

 

As mentioned, Lotte plans to be the largest duty free brand in Vietnam within the next three years, and will open additional stores in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Da Nang. Vietnam is part of Lotte’s wider ambition of expanding the number of its overseas stores which currently stands at seven.

 

Jang Seon-wook said the company hopes to exceed sales expectations within the first year of operations at Nha Trang Airport whilst also making strong contributions to the local community.