According to news from Economic Weekly, the two largest duty-free shops in South Korea, Lotte and Shilla, have officially withdrawn from Incheon International Airport. This is mainly because with the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the passenger flow of these two airports has been greatly hit, and has currently decreased by about 95%. As the largest airport in the country, Incheon Airport handles the majority of international tourists every year. However, the sudden drop in international tourists this year has directly led to the loss of any business in these duty-free shops. Now in order to avoid their own losses, they have now closed their stores and withdrawn. Today we will discuss the impact of relying on foreign tourists on these duty-free shops.

First, this impact is only short-term.

In fact, the main reason for closing these two duty-free shops is that if you open a shop here now, it will not actually bring any benefits to your business. That's why they chose to close these two important duty-free shops. And from the news coming back from the airport, it can be seen that the two previous stores of duty-free shops have now been tendered three times, and most of the rents have been reduced, but there are still no other brands entering. In fact, it can be seen from here that after the epidemic recovers. If they want to re-rent the duty-free shop at this time, they are very sure. After all, they were able to bring in a large number of orders and provide a lot of tax revenue before.

Second, what will be the impact of canceling these duty-free shops?

The cancellation of duty-free shops this time directly caused 500 people to lose their jobs. Of course, the biggest impact will still be a psychological shadow on many people's investment in airport stores. You must know that the two duty-free shops I mentioned above occupy 1/3 of the entire Incheon International Airport duty-free shop area. With their withdrawal, other duty-free shops are now considering temporarily closing their stores and leaving Incheon International Airport. For the operation of the entire international airport, their rent is very high. If they are all closed, it will also cause serious losses to them.

Third, how to mitigate such losses?

Judging from the current spread of the new coronavirus, there is still no way to avoid this situation in a short time. After all, South Korea mainly relies on foreign tourists. You can buy some duty-free products at the airport duty-free shop. South Korea's medical beauty industry is particularly developed, and these duty-free shops also provide these services. With the sharp decline in tourists, most of them are now purchased through purchasing agents and online stores. Few people will go to South Korea specifically to make purchases. Under such circumstances, these stores will suffer losses for a long time.