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Biz News Korea(Eng)

Lotte Duty Free opens 1st shop in Vietnam

Collected: 2017.06.02

Distributed: 2017.06.05

Source: Go Direct

Lotte Duty Free, travel retail arm of South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group, is making a foray into the Vietnam market for the first time as a Korean duty-free retailer as it seeks to diversify revenue sources after local outlets were hard-hit from thinning Chinese visitors.

The company said Thursday it opened in May a duty-free shop in Da Nang, a popular tourist destination in Vietnam. The shop called Phu Bkanh Duty Free was set up in a joint venture between Lotte and a Vietnamese company with the Korean company holding a 60 percent stake.

The 1,000-square-meter outlet, situated in the Da Nang International Airport, is currently under a trial run and its official opening is set to take place later this year. The store would be operational as early as August, said a Lotte Duty Free official.

Following the opening of the Phu Bkanh Duty Free, the Korean travel retail company plans to open additional stores in Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi and other major cities in Vietnam.

Lotte Duty Free’s decision to open tax-exempt outlets in Vietnam comes after its grappling with the sharp fall in sales at its Korean shops as Chinese tourists have stopped coming to Korea on the Chinese government’s travel ban, a retaliation against Seoul’s installation of the U.S. antimissile system. Of combined sales of 12.3 trillion won ($10.96 billion) raked in by duty-free outlets in downtown Seoul and airports last year, the lion’s share of 70 percent had come from the pockets of Chinese tourists.

Since then, Lotte Duty Free and its Korean peers have been aggressively exploring business opportunities overseas. Lotte Duty Free, which currently runs stores in Indonesia, Japan and Guam, plans to open another shop in Bangkok this month.

By Sohn Il-seon

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