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| Seen above is an exterior view of I'Park Tower in Samseong-dong, southeastern Seoul. A new duty free shop will open here, if HDC Shilla Duty Free gains a new duty free store license Saturday. / Courtesy of HDC Shilla Duty Free |
By Park Jae-hyuk
HDC Shilla Duty Free said Wednesday it will open an IT converged duty free shop, combined with Samsung's cutting-edge technologies, if the company is selected as a new duty free store operator on Saturday.
"We will introduce the new paradigm of duty free shops which can continue to provide a growth engine for the next 100 years," said Yang Chang-hoon and Lee Gil-han, co-heads of the joint venture between Hotel Shilla and Hyundai Development Corporation (HDC).
Using the 5G mobile communication technology of Samsung Electronics, the new duty free store plans to adopt the industry's first merged reality (MR) technology, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies of Samsung SDS.
"If foreign tourists input their preferences and go into MR fitting rooms, our AI will recommend the most suitable fashion items to them," an official of HDC Shilla said in a press release. "The AI will tell them the most preferred tourist attractions and restaurants afterward, based on massively accumulated tourist data."
Media walls and digital signs will be installed on the first floor of the new duty free store, so visitors can learn about Korea's history, geography and culture through holographic images, the company said.
HDC Shilla mainly targets Chinese tourists who individually visit Korea, as they are fashion-conscious with high purchasing power. Those Chinese tourists, born between the early 1980s and the 2000s, prefer the Korean wave and trendy brands here.
The Gangnam area in southeastern Seoul, where HDC Shilla seeks to open the new duty free shop, has been one of the most favorite places for those young tourists. HDC Shilla aims to offer everything of hallyu ― IT, beauty, fashion and culture ― at its I'Park Tower.
"The new duty free shop will attract customers with Korean brand flagship stores, shops of young designers' brands and K-drama goods," the company official said. "We will make a 4K-Product duty free shop which includes K-cosmetics, K-bags, K-culture, K-food and health."
In order to attract foreign tourists, HDC Shilla also signed memorandums of understanding with cultural facilities ― Seoul Arts Center and the National Gugak Center ― and pledged to cooperate with 80 Korean and Chinese travel agencies.
The company has been confident it will win a new duty free license, thanks to the business management skills of Hotel Shilla and sound financial structure of HDC.
In 2014, Hotel Shilla became the industry's first and only AA-class enterprise of the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO), which means the company is qualified for simple customs procedures.
HDC Shilla, which began to operate its first duty free shop in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul, has adopted Hotel Shilla's management structure.
"The AEO certification is one of the most important factors to evaluate a duty free operator's law-observance," the company official said. "Hotel Shilla is the only AA-class enterprise among the candidates of the new duty free stores in Seoul."
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