[Monitor] No. of foreign visitors to duty free shops fall 19%
By Korea HeraldPublished : May 23, 2017 - 17:49
The decline was largely due to a sharp decrease in Chinese visitors following Beijing‘s trip restriction in retaliation against Seoul’s hosting of a US missile defense program.
The April figure is also the lowest in nearly two years since the duty-free stores suffered a slump in light of the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in the summer of 2015.
The comparative figure for Korean visitors, in the meantime, rose 6.8 percent on-month to 2.7 million in April.
The combined figure marked a decline of 1.7 percent on-month.
The total sales of the duty-free shops also reduced by 11.2 percent to $590 million in April from March, while the sales from locals increased 12 percent to $299 million.
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Articles by Korea Herald