Korea Grand Sale to take place on Jan. 16

Foreign tourists visit the main welcome center in Seoul during the 2019 Korea Grand Sale. / Courtesy of Visit Korea Committee

By Kang Seung-woo

The Korea Grand Sale, an annual sales event to woo foreigners, will be back, Jan. 16, for a 45-day run until Feb. 29, the Visit Korea Committee said, Tuesday.

Under the theme of “Inviting you to the Korea Grand Sale,” the integrated festival of shopping, tourism and culture for international visitors will once again offer steep discounts in a variety of areas such as flights, transportation, accommodation, shopping, beauty, health and hands-on events.

Also this time, the festival is set to offer foreigners a package of Korean culture-inspired activities such as K-pop, K-beauty and K-food that are catching on worldwide.

“We are ready to deliver a pleasant shopping experience and opportunities for foreign visitors to experience and consume Korea's culture through the upcoming Korea Grand Sale,” Han Kyung-ah, the secretary-general of the committee, said at a press conference in Seoul.

According to the committee, this year's edition will be the largest-ever as more than 1,000 retailers and service providers have signed up to participate in the event, promising to offer huge benefits. Last year's event drew over 800 firms.

As part of efforts to increase inbound tourists, the committee has beefed up its tourism promotion in cooperation with eight Korean carriers, including Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, and they will provide discounts up to 95 percent on some 100 flight routes to Korean cities during the festival.

In addition, discounts on land transportation services, including the high-speed KTX train and the Airport Railroad Express train, will also be available for foreign passengers.

In order to promote local tourism, foreigners-only K-Travel buses connecting Seoul with seven regional cities will provide buy-one-get-one-free deals, and EG-shuttle buses between Seoul and tourist destinations in Gyeonggi Province will offer the same promotion during the event.

Some 300 hotels across the nation will also join the festival, providing discounts up to 80 percent, according to the committee.

When it comes to the package of K-culture promotional events, the Korea Grand Sale features special admissions to major K-pop programs, such as the annual “M Countdown” TV show by K-pop channel Mnet and the Seoul Music Awards, scheduled for January.

Beauty classes featuring Korea's world-famous beauty products and techniques, cuisine tours involving Korean restaurants and cafes across the country, and special programs on Korean cultural heritage will also be available during the festival season.

The committee also said the nation's major ski resorts will offer discounts up to 40 percent on accommodations and up to 50 percent on lift tickets and equipment rentals to help international travelers experience the Korean winter firsthand.

Moreover, welcome centers located at major airports and tourist attractions in Seoul will offer convenience services including foreign language translation, tourism information and free WiFi to ensure a pleasant stay in Korea.

Sales from this year's Korea Grand Sale came to 1.25 trillion won, compared with 900.7 billion won the previous year, according to the data from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the committee. It marks the first time that its sales surpassed 1 trillion won since the annual shopping event was launched in 2011.