It was found that duty-free sales, which had plummeted due to the corona crisis, are still not recovering.
According to the Korea Duty Free Shop Association, sales at duty-free shops last year totaled 17.8 trillion won.
It increased by 14.9% from 15.5 trillion won in sales in 2020, which was the early days of Corona, but rather slightly decreased than in 2021 (17.8 trillion won).
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Compared to 2019 (24,858.6 billion won), just before the corona crisis, it is still at 71.6%.
In particular, the number of visitors to duty-free shops last year was 10.83 million, up 59.9% from 2021 (6.771 million), but the fact that sales decreased rather seems to have been affected by restrictions on Chinese movement due to China's containment policy.
Although the number of domestic tourists has increased, it is interpreted that the high exchange rate, high interest rates, and high prices have not increased purchases at duty-free shops.
Domestic duty-free sales continued to increase from 3.8522 trillion won in 2009, exceeding 10 trillion won in 2016 and 20 trillion won in 2019, respectively.