Chinese Buying Agents Send South Korea's Duty Free Sales to Four-Month High
Xu Wei
DATE:  Mar 01 2018
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
Chinese Buying Agents Send South Korea's Duty Free Sales to Four-Month High Chinese Buying Agents Send South Korea's Duty Free Sales to Four-Month High

(Yicai Global) March 1 -- Sales at duty free shops in South Korea hit a four-month high of nearly USD1.4 billion in January as declining tourist numbers saw an increase in buying agents.

The number of overseas visitors dived almost 20 percent on the year to 1.3 million, but they spent 51 percent more as sales from foreign travelers tallied more than USD1 billion for the first time, the country's largest news agency Yonhap reported.

China recently permitted organized tours to South Korea after an eight-month ban, but Chinese tourists are still uncertain about travelling to the peninsula nation. Many are relying on buying agents to do their shopping for them, which pushed the average spend by a single foreign tourist to more than USD794, up nearly 89 percent on the year, data from the report shows.

Only 305,127 Chinese tourists visited South Korea last month, down 46 percent on the year, according to data from the Korea Tourism Organization.

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Keywords:   South Korea,Duty Free,TOURISM