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Retailers hope for sales recovery amid thawing relations with China: sources
By YonhapPublished : Nov. 5, 2017 - 10:50
South Korea's retailers and duty-free shops are launching promotional events to attract more Chinese tourists, industry sources said Sunday, amid thawing ties between Seoul and Beijing after months of frosty relations over the deployment of a US missile defense system.
The two countries agreed last month to put back on track ties that have been soured for the past several months, as China has put in place economic retaliation against South Korea over the stationing of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system.
Seoul has maintained that THAAD has been stationed to deal with North Korea's nuclear and missile threats and does not target China, but Beijing sees it as a security threat as the powerful radar system can scan deep inside its territory.
Since mid-March, China has banned its travel agencies from selling package tour programs to South Korea, while many groups in China rallied people not to buy South Korean goods.
The number of Chinese tourists in South Korea fell 56 percent on-year in September, marking the seventh straight month of decline. Chinese nationals accounted for nearly half of all tourists who visited South Korea in 2016.
Sales of cars in China by Hyundai Motor Co. also plummeted 37.2 percent to 2.75 million units for the first nine months this year from a year earlier.
Lotte Duty Free, South Korea's top duty-free shop operator, said it is enhancing promotional efforts through Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, and other Chinese social networking services.
Shilla Duty Free, the nation's No. 2 operator, said it will soon organize familiarization tours of Korea for Chinese tour agencies and come up with measures to make the most use of Chinese power bloggers.
It will also seek joint events together with Alipay, China's largest online payment service provider, and actively take part in tour exhibitions in China.
Other duty-free shops are also arranging a variety of events for Chinese tourists jointly with Chinese airliners, tour agencies and credit card firms.
"We will launch marketing activities in accordance with the changing situation in China, although it is unclear at the moment when Chinese tourists will begin coming to South Korea as they did in the past," an industry source said.
South Korea's major department stores will also follow suit.
Lotte Department Store said it will provide gift cards and vouchers for the use of the department store's VIP lounges to Chinese tourists who purchase package tour programs to South Korea through China's biggest travel company Ctrip.
Lotte will also reveal a variety of packages in cooperation with Alipay and China's credit card operator UnionPay Co.
Hyundai Department Store said it will provide a 5 percent discount to Chinese tourists who purchase products with UnionPay cards.
