Duty free sales in South Korea’s downtown and airport shops have fallen by an overall 20% to 30% in June, due to the drop in foreign visitor arrivals following the MERS outbreak last month, according to Lotte Duty Free, South Korea’s leading duty free operator.

 

 

However, most duty free stores and airports are believed to have recorded some year-on-year sales growth in June, as group tour cancellations by mainland tour groups for travel this month have not been very heavy, according to the Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO) and separate local press reports.

 

 

“Lotte Duty Free thinks that total sales to foreign tourists in June have dropped 30% in the downtown stores and 20% in the airport stores compared to last year,” a Lotte Duty Free spokesman told TRBusiness yesterday.

 

 

Mainland Chinese visitor numbers have been the most affected since the MERS outbreak began to concern potential visitors from Hong Kong and Taiwan. This has resulted in fewer Chinese customers in particular visiting South Korea’s downtown duty free store and airport shops.

 

 

 

 

 

MIXED REACTIONS TO MERS OUTBREAK

However, overseas trips and duty free purchases by South Korean travellers appear to be unaffected by the MERS scare: “Sales to Koreans are not affected by the MERS outbreak,” the Lotte spokesman said.

 

 

The June drop in foreign visitors and duty free store customers follows strong growth in monthly duty free sales in April and May of this year, with many downtown stores in Seoul seeing sales increase of as much as 50% year-on-year and airport shops recording revenue growth of 10% to 15% due to a rapid increase in mainland Chinese visitor numbers.

 

 

Meanwhile, Incheon Airport is due to publish monthly figures shortly which should show the extent of any fall in international passenger numbers in June, although the airport’s published monthly passenger traffic figures do not break down travellers by nationality.

 

 

 

OPERATORS MONITOR TRAFFIC LEVELS

“I’ve heard that passengers are decreasing because of MERS, but I’m not sure. Maybe it’s a small decrease,” said an Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) source contacted by TRBusiness yesterday.

 

 

Prior to the MERS outbreak, Incheon Airport was recording strong double-digit growth in international passengers numbers this year. According to IIAC figures, a total of 20.95m arriving and departing international passengers used the airport from January to May of this year, an increase of 17% compared to the comparative period last year.

 

 

In May, international passenger numbers rose by 20% to reach a total of 4.26m passengers, after numbers rose by 19% to reach 4.18m passengers in April compared with the same month in 2014.