Foreign shoppers at duty-free stores up 39%, but spending per visitor falls

More foreign tourists are visiting duty-free stores in South Korea, but the amount each spends has actually declined, data showed Tuesday.

According to the Korea Duty Free Association, the number of foreign shoppers at domestic duty-free stores last month reached 1,386,530 — a 39.1 percent increase from 996,653 in August last year.

Foreign sales, however, grew only 8.0 percent over the same period, rising from 733.1 billion won ($539 million) to 791.5 billion won. As a result, the average purchase per foreign visitor fell 22.4 percent, from about 736,000 won in August last year to about 571,000 won in August this year.

Compared with July, when the figure stood at 633,000 won, the average spending per foreign visitor dropped 9.8 percent.

Total shoppers across all duty-free stores last month came to 2,933,446, up 11.7 percent from a year earlier and 10.0 percent from the previous month.

Overall sales reached 1.06 trillion won, up 4.1 percent from the same month last year, though they edged down 0.5 percent from the previous month.

The number of Korean shoppers stood at 1,546,916, down 5.1 percent from a year ago. However, the figure rose 13.5 percent from the previous month, signaling a recovery.

Sales to Korean shoppers totaled 269.9 billion won, down about 6 percent from a year earlier but up 11.6 percent from the previous month.

The industry is anticipating a rise in visitors ahead of China's Golden Week holiday, which runs from Thursday through Oct. 7. Recent booking data for international flights from China has shown growing demand for travel to Seoul, raising hopes that foreign duty-free sales could rebound.