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Spending by Chinese tourists keep rising in South Korea

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-02-22 16:39

SEOUL: Chinese tourists traveling to South Korea are continuing to increase spending during their stay, local media reported Monday citing industry sources.

Lotte Department Store, the country's largest retail chain store, saw sales from Chinese tourists grow from 14.6 percent of the chain's entire Chinese and Japanese tourist sales in the first quarter of 2009 to 28.9 percent and 40.4 percent in the second and third quarter, respectively, to close at 47 percent in the last quarter, Yonhap News Agency quoted unnamed sources as saying.

The trend continued in the month of January this year as spending by Chinese visitors has accounted for 46.2 percent of the retailer's sales figures of Japanese and Chinese combined, putting them on a par with the Japanese spending, according to the report.

In addition, the average number of Chinese customers at Shinsegae Department Store, one of South Korea's leading retailers, has been some 200 per day, two to three times more than that of the Japanese, spending in excess of 1 million won ($868.21) per person, said the source.

The spending hike is largely due to the strengthening Chinese economy, and its currency Yuan, as the spending spree is expected to continue to rise in the foreseeable future based on China's upbeat economy, the source added.