By Park Si-soo
Chinese tourists have once again proven to be super spenders.
Last Friday a 70,000-ton cruise ship, Legend of the Seas carrying 2,000 Chinese tourists anchored in waters off Jeju Island. The alloted time for shopping was only ninety minutes during their eight-hour stay there. While rushing through Lotte Duty Free Shop they swept up items in a whirlwind buying spree, to the delight of Korean merchants.
A tourist bought hundreds of face masks worth $1,000 and another visitor purchased $3,000 of Jung Kwang Jang, a local brand of liquefied Korean ginseng. Nearly 30 domestic rice cookers, Cuckoo, were sold. The Swiss luxury watch brand Rolex was also popular and many were purchased.
A Rolex store employee said Chinese tourists buy luxury items which they might not buy in their homeland believing that such products at Korean duty free shops are genuine. According to the duty free shop the Chinese tourists spent nearly 1 billion won ($881,000), in frantic duty free shopping.
So what else did they purchase?
Tour guides say Chinese travelers come with a list of items they want to buy here for time-efficient shopping.
The Korea Times interviewed local retailers to determine the most sought-after brands and items among Chinese visitors. Interviewees said the demand for Korean products among Chinese visitors continues to increase thanks largely to “hallyu” or the Korean wave, which has swept many Asian countries in recent years.
The most popular cosmetics brand was Amore Pacific, which produces a wide range of skincare products under different labels such as Sulwhasoo, Laneige and Hera. Sales of Amore Pacific accounted for more than 25 percent of the entire beauty products sold at domestic duty free shops last year.
“Sulwhasoo’s popularity has notably increased (among Chinese),” said Jang Kyung-soo, a sales manager at Hyundai Department in Seoul. “after it was publicized that Sulwhasoo products are made from elements extracted from medicinal herbs without chemical additives.”
Among the best-selling women’s clothing brands are SK Network’s Obzee and O’2nd.
The local rice cooker Cuckoo is a top-selling home appliance product. More than 100,000 Cuckoos were sold at domestic duty free shops last year and the company expects it to increase by 20 percent this year. Cuckoo is aggressively pushing to attract more Chinese consumers. It recently launched products equipped with a Chinese alarm system and opened repair centers in mainland China.
Industry watchers expect the firm’s revenue to continually grow on the back of increasing per capita rice consumption in China.
Another rice cooker brand Lihom is also benefiting from the trend. “Gone are the days when a Japanese rice cooker was regarded as the best product,” a Lihom spokesman said. “Now, Korean appliances are believed to be superior, largely contributing to a steep sales increase of Korean rice cookers.”
Last year, nearly 9.79 million Chinese travelers visited Korea, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The ministry expects the number to reach a record high of 11 million in 2012.
For the first three months of this year, the highest number of tourists came from Japan at 900,000, followed by Chinese (520,000) and American (150,000).