Chinese tourists spend less in South Korea: department store

Chinese tourists' spending during their stay in South Korea has recently shrunk. According to Lotte Department Store in Seoul Tuesday, Chinese visitors, the biggest foreign consumer group here, spent an average of 560,000 won per person for shopping at the department during the Lunar New Year holiday between Feb. 18 and 22, down 14 percent from 650,000 won in 2014 and 38 percent from 900,000 won in 2013.

Spending by Chinese visitors accounted for 26 percent the foreign tourists' total expenditures at the department during the five-day period, Lotte said.

Lotte officials attributed the decrease to a fall in the number of Chinese travelers who buy luxury goods, an increase in the number of individual Chinese tourists and China's aggressive anti-corruption campaign.

Those in their 20s and 30s, who want "nice and cheap fashion," constituted a whopping 60 percent of the total Chinese traveling to South Korea, according to an analysis made by KDB Daewoo Securities Co. last month based on data compiled by Ctrip, a mainland China-focused travel agency.

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com

Chinese tourists spend less in South Korea: department store

Related