SOUTH KOREA. Incheon International Airport generated duty free sales of US$2 billion (updated figure) in 2014 – a world-record performance in the 67-year history of the airport duty free industry – The Moodie Report can reveal.
The number is just ahead of Dubai Duty Free's own record 2014 sales of US$1.917 billion, a result first revealed by us yesterday.
Incheon sales outstripped international passenger traffic growth of +10.1% (to 44.9 million) in 2014.
The record turnover was driven by surging numbers of Chinese visitors to South Korea – up +40.9% in the first 11 months to 5,706,364 (a 43.5% share of arrivals) – and a strong increase in outbound Korean nationals (ahead +7.4% to 14,650,007 for the same period).