{"id":52788,"date":"2026-06-14T23:56:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/52788\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T23:56:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:56:41","slug":"lotte-targets-foreign-shoppers-at-transit-hubs-as-tourist-spending-spreads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/52788\/","title":{"rendered":"Lotte Targets Foreign Shoppers at Transit Hubs as Tourist Spending Spreads"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LotteLotte Outlet Seoul Station branch. Photo courtesy of Lotte Department Store.<\/p>\n

The spending routes of foreign tourists are expanding. Beyond traditional tourism and shopping hubs such as Myeongdong and Jamsil, visitors are increasingly heading to retail facilities located at transit points including airports and railway stations. As foreign sales rise rapidly at transit-hub stores such as Seoul Station and Gimpo Airport, Lotte in particular is moving quickly to capture shopping and food-and-beverage demand targeting these visitors.<\/p>\n

According to the retail industry Tuesday, foreigners accounted for 35% of total first-quarter sales this year at Lotte Outlet Seoul Station, which is connected to Seoul Station. This ranks among the highest levels among major retail stores in Korea. During the same period, foreign sales themselves rose 65% from a year earlier. Because Seoul Station is a key transit hub connecting the KTX high-speed rail, airport railway and subway, demand from foreigners shopping before and after their travels is seen as concentrated there.<\/p>\n

Lotte Mall Gimpo Airport, the only complex shopping space in Korea directly connected to an airport, also showed a marked increase in foreign spending. Foreign sales at the store rose 60% in the first quarter this year from a year earlier. This is by far the highest growth rate among Lotte Malls in the Seoul metropolitan area. The composition ratio of foreign sales was also about twice as high as the average for Lotte Malls in the metropolitan area. In particular, sales in the fashion category jumped 90% year-on-year, driving overall foreign sales growth.<\/p>\n

\"LotteLotte Mall Gimpo Airport branch. Photo courtesy of Lotte Department Store.<\/p>\n

This trend shows that the spending patterns of foreign tourists are changing. While foreign tourists’ shopping was once concentrated in major tourist areas and large department stores such as Myeongdong, Gangnam and Jamsil, the tendency to shop and dine at transit points along their routes has recently grown stronger. Moving away from group-tour-centered consumption, a “local-style consumption” trend is spreading, in which individual travelers move like locals and immediately purchase the products and food they need.<\/p>\n

As a result, food and beverage (F&B) sales also increased markedly. Total restaurant-zone foreign sales at Lotte Mall Gimpo Airport and Lotte Outlet Seoul Station each grew by more than 30%. This is analyzed as the result of foreigners using the airport and station before and after departure taking advantage of their travel time to enjoy Korean cuisine or settle the last meal of their trip. Gimpo Airport allows flight passengers to flow directly into the shopping mall, while Seoul Station can absorb both airport railway and KTX passengers, giving both an advantageous structure for attracting foreign F&B demand.<\/p>\n

In line with this trend, Lotte is strengthening its capacity to serve foreigners at transit-hub stores. The strategy is to reinforce foreign-language guidance, payment convenience and popular brand lineups, as well as fashion and food-and-beverage content, so that travelers can complete both shopping and dining within their short stays.<\/p>\n

\"CustomersCustomers watch a performance at Lotte Mall Gimpo Airport branch. Photo courtesy of Lotte Department Store.<\/p>\n

Lotte Outlet Seoul Station, for its part, is rolling out various tailored marketing campaigns to meet rising demand from foreign customers. It is running a Google Maps review event for foreign customers, presenting “old-style japchae noodles,” which capture the atmosphere of Korea, to those who write reviews. It is also offering special-price events for K-fashion brands such as Covernat and Wakywilly, actively targeting global interest in Korean fashion.<\/p>\n

“Foreign tourists’ spending is no longer confined to specific tourist areas but is spreading across their entire travel routes,” an industry official said. “The importance of foreign sales at retail stores connected to transit points such as airports, railway stations and terminals will grow even larger going forward.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lotte Outlet Seoul Station branch. Photo courtesy of Lotte Department Store. The spending routes of foreign tourists are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[30140,30136,6977,20840,30135,30138,30137,112,30139],"class_list":["post-52788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seoul","tag-fb-sales","tag-foreign-tourist-spending","tag-k-fashion","tag-korea-tourism","tag-lotte","tag-lotte-mall-gimpo-airport","tag-lotte-outlet-seoul-station","tag-seoul","tag-transit-hub-retail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}