Before Lunar New Year, Myeongdong preparing for deluge of Chinese tourists

Chinese tourists shop at a cosmetics store in Seoul’s Myeongdong neighborhood, Feb. 11. (by Kim Kyung-ho, staff photographer)

In recent years, the number of tourists from the mainland has increased, and many are here shopping for high quality cosmetics 

On the afternoon of Feb. 10, a Hankyoreh reporter visited one of the five branches of Missha in Myeongdong, Seoul. A Chinese tourist with packs of cosmetics in both hands entered the store, holding up her smartphone. On the screen was a picture of BB cream, a cosmetic product.

Before the customer could even open her mouth, the store employee escorted her to the counter and started describing the products in fluent Chinese.

In advance of the Lunar New Year - a holiday lasting from Feb. 18 to 28 - the cosmetics shops of Myeongdong were hurriedly preparing for a rush of Chinese tourists.

A branch of The Face Shop that was bustling with Chinese tourists had big displays of face masks and packs bundled together in sets of 10, 60, and even 120. Mascara came in sets of 10 as well.

Snail cream and golden gel masks - which contain 24 karat gold - were advertised prominently, as those items are especially popular with Chinese shoppers.

“Bu mai mei guan xi! Zhin lai kan yi kan!” shouted an employee in front of the store whose job was to lure in customers. This was Chinese for “You don’t have to buy anything! Just come in and take a look!”

Just a few years ago, one would have heard the Japanese greeting “Irasshaimase” - roughly meaning “welcome to the store” - but not anymore. 90% of customers here are Chinese, with Koreans accounting for around 5%.

“Lots of Chinese are so sensitive to trends that they will bring in a screen shot from the TV show ‘Get It Beauty’ [sic] and ask us for the top product on the show,” a store manager said.

Six of eight employees at the store are Korean-Chinese who speak Chinese fluently. The other two can speak Japanese and English.

“Chinese don’t like products that are made in China, so they often ask us whether a certain product is really made in Korea. If customers buy more than 500,000 won (US$452) worth of products, we’ll throw in a suitcase for them to carry what they bought. Chinese even ask us if the suitcase is made in Korea,” the manager said.

A branch of Nature Republic located near Myeongdong Station stacked up big 300ml containers of aloe soothing gel in front of the door. The first thing that customers see upon entering the store is sets of hand lotion on display. There are twelve kinds of lotion, each adorned with the picture of one of the twelve members of popular Korean group Exo. If customers spend more than 500,000 won at the store, they can have their purchases shipped home via EMS for free.

The 30 employees at the store even provide personal delivery service to hotels in the area. At the moment, they make these deliveries about 10 times a day, but the frequency is expected to increase next week.

The busiest shop of all was Missha, which has a sale on the 10th of each month called “Missha Day.” “Tourists who have visited Korea a few times know about Missha Day. There was one customer who bought a regular mask and a gel mask and took them back to China. After using them, she came back and bought 100 of the gel masks,” said the manager at this store.

There are twelve employees at the store, but the manager is the only one who is South Korean. The rest are Korean-Chinese or Han Chinese.

As the Chinese tourism boom extends into its second year, differences can be seen in the spending patterns of recent tourists compared to the initial visitors.

“Just two years ago, seven out of every ten Chinese tourists spent more than one million won (US$904), but these days only two or three out of ten spend that much. As Korea becomes a more common destination for Chinese travelers, an increasing number of customers appear to be making rational purchases at franchise shops or going to duty free stores and department stores to buy top-shelf cosmetics,” the manager at Missha said.

On Feb. 10, the person who spent the most money at the store was a Chinese customer who bought 1.2 million won (US$1,085) worth of products.

By 7 pm on Tuesday, Innisfree had already sold out of a green tea-based cleansing foam. At one store, employees had to get help from the manager when their shaky Korean language level prevented them from answering a Korean customer’s questions about their products.

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) estimates that this year around 126,000 Chinese will visit South Korea during the Lunar New Year, up 30% from 2014.

In 2014, 6.13 million Chinese visited the country, representing 43.1% of all tourists. Per capita expenditures are higher for Chinese than any other nationality, with more than 50% of their money going to cosmetics.

　

By Song Kyung-hwa, staff reporter

　

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