“Is it because of the Chinese New Year?”…Duty-free shop sales in January “surge” = South Korea

In South Korea, it was revealed in January that the performance of the duty-free shop industry had improved. According to the Korean Duty Free Shop Association on the 28th, the sales amount of duty free shops in January this year was 1.5909 trillion won (approx.
180.4 billion yen), an increase of 21.7% from the previous month. Additionally, the number of passengers increased by 3.1% to 2,250,119.
The number of foreign users was 630,291, accounting for 28% of the total, and the sales amount was 1,032,888.
1 billion won (approximately 149.8 billion yen), an increase of 26.1% from the previous month. Considering that the number of customers decreased by 1.8%, this means that the average spend per customer increased.
However, the industry analyzes that this is a ``base effect'' due to the endemic COVID-19 virus infection. Especially in January
The prevailing view is that this is a ``natural increase,'' as this is the traditional peak period for the duty-free industry. In addition, Chinese people, who account for 80% of foreign customers, celebrate the Spring Festival (Chinese Lunar New Year) in February.
It is said that they often buy duty-free items when shopping.