Lotte Duty Free, the biggest duty-free shop in South Korea, has unveiled its ‘Vision 2020,’ which sets out its goal of becoming the world’s largest duty free shop operator within the next five years.
On September 23, Lotte Duty Free said it would directly attract 13 million foreign tourists to the nation over the next five years, thereby contributing to the revitalization of the Korean economy. In addition, it said it would become the world’s No.1 duty-free shop operator in five years, thus becoming the duty-free equivalent of Samsung Electronics in the services sector.
According to its Vision 2020, Lotte Duty Free aims to lure in 13 million foreign tourists by 2020 by upgrading the flagship Lotte Duty Free Shop in Sogong-dong (the world’s No.1 duty free shop by sales) into the “the Best of the Best” and the Lotte Duty Free World Tower store into “the Next (the future of the nation’s duty free retail business).”
Lotte Dutry Free expects that it will rake in foreign exchange worth 29 trillion won over the next 5 years, therefore helping South Korea's travel account balance swing into the black, creating added value worth 19 trillion won (20 percent of Seoul’s tourism GRDP (Gross Regional Domestic Product)) and 96,000 jobs, the largest figure in the domestic tourism industry.
Last year, Lotte Duty Free made it into the world’s top 3 duty free shop operators list, beating France’s LS Travel Retail. Many think that Switzerland’s Dufry and the US’s DFS, the world’s No. 1 and No. 2, have been leading the global duty-free market by exploiting economies of scale.
Leaving open the possibility of M&As, Lotte Duty Free plans to attain its goal of becoming
