China’s Ban of Package Tours
The atmosphere of Myeong-dong and Dongdaemun areas and some duty free stores in Seoul on March 15, the first day of China’s travel ban on South Korea, was dreary.
There were not many people in Lotte Duty Free Shop in Sogong-dong at 10 am on the day. This was partially because group tourists usually visit the store after 3 pm. About 20 tourists stood in line for only some cosmetics brand stores on the 11th and 12th floors, including REFA and Yves Saint Laurent, but only one and two customers were in other stores.
An official from Lotte Duty Free Shop said, “The number of Chinese group tourists has been on decline from before. We don’t think the number of customers would suddenly plunge from the 15th but the impact of China’s ban the sale of package tours to South Korea is expected to appear a week later.”
In its latest economic retaliation over the scheduled deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system, China has banned all Chinese travel agencies from selling package tours to South Korea beginning on the 15th. China-based major travel agencies, both online and offline, are now forbidden to sell trips to South Korea, including group tours, cruise stopovers and individual travels booked through agencies, following an instruction from the China National Tourism Administration. They are also banned to sell Lotte related products and required to put up a sign notifying the end of selling their online tour products to South Korea. Those who violate the order will face severe punishment. In addition, Chinese tourists will not be able to travel South Korea as Chinese travel agencies are forbidden to arrange Chinese travel visas to South Korea from the 15th.
The ambience of Myeong-dong streets was all but same. The streets were packed with locals and foreign tourists at other times. However, there were only reporters, who visited to shoot the changed landscape of Myeong-dong after the latest move of China, and small groups of two to three individual tourists in the vast streets on the day.
Dongdaemun shopping district, a popular tourist destination among Chinese tourists, was more desolate than Myeong-dong. Dongdaemun shopping malls, such as Doota Mall and Goodmorning City, the square of the buildings were crowded with Chinese tourists even on weekdays but there were only locals and individual tourists even at 1 pm on the 15th. A Korean cosmetics store had more salesmen than customers.
Meanwhile, China is leveling up the pressure on Lotte Group as part of its retaliation over the agreement of swapping land for the THAAD installation. Chinese pop singer Xie Tianming published a song which calls on Chinese people to boycott products made by Lotte, and one female BJ broadcasted her show damaging products at Lotte Mart.