SEOUL, May 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s cosmetics and tourism industries have yet to benefit much from China’s lifting of a ban on group tours to Seoul despite a recent gain in the number of Chinese visitors, sources said Friday. In March last year, China took a set of retaliatory measures against Seoul, including [...]
SEOUL, May 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean retail giant Lotte said Friday it has decided to sell one of its discount store units in China to a local retailer in a major step toward withdrawing from the world’s second-largest economy. Lotte Shopping Holding Hong Kong Co. will sell 100 percent of its stake in [...]
SEOUL, May 4 (Korea Bizwire) — With food-related online purchases on the rise thanks to mobile delivery apps, the total volume for online shopping saw record-breaking sales in March totaling 9 trillion won. The first quarter figures for online shopping consumers from China appeared to be somewhat slower due to the lingering aftermath of the [...]
SEOUL, Apr. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — Hyundai Motor Co. has sold more sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) in China in the first quarter of this year, with such vehicles accounting for 40 percent all sales in the large market, auto industry data showed Tuesday. Hyundai sold 67,167 units of its four SUV models from January through March, [...]
SEOUL, Apr. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of foreigners who visited South Korea rose 10.7 percent on-year in March, ending 12 straight months of decline, data showed Monday, as the government pushes to diversify the country’s tourist portfolio in the face of a plunge in the number of Chinese visitors. The total number of [...]
SEOUL, Apr. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreigners-only casinos are showing better sales this year after a big dip last year caused by China’s retaliation over a diplomatic row, industry data showed Monday. Sales in January and February reached 204.78 billion won (US$191.56 million), up 15.9 percent from the same period last year, according to the [...]
SEJONG, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — The decline in Chinese tourism to South Korea may have reached an inflection point last month, as Chinese arrivals rebounded after a year of strained ties between Seoul and Beijing. According to a government document revealed by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, last month’s inbound Chinese tourists marked [...]
SEOUL, Apr. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Operating profits of South Korea’s duty-free shops declined sharply in general last year due to the cutthroat competition to attract Chinese tourists, and over Beijing’s economic retaliation against the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile defense system here, industry sources said Tuesday. Chinese travel agencies have suspended sales of tour [...]
SEOUL, April 2 (Korea Bizwire) – Hotel Lotte Co., a hotel and duty-free operator of South Korean retail giant Lotte, said the operating profit of its duty-free unit nosedived to a record-low level in 2017 amid a diplomatic row between Seoul and Beijing over a U.S. missile defense system. Lotte Duty Free’s operating income came to 2.5 billion won [...]
SEOUL, April 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Japan has been a beneficiary of the strained national ties between South Korea and China over the installation of a U.S. defense missile system (THAAD), with South Korean tourists more inclined to spend their days off in the island nation rather than an unfriendly China. From January until February, [...]