The most popular shopping items for foreign tourists last year were cosmetics and perfumes.
According to a report "Analysis on 2014 Tourism Market" published by the Korea Tourism Organization on September 27, cosmetics and perfumes accounted for 59.6 percent of all purchases made by foreigners visiting Korea last year. It was then followed by clothing items (44.6%) and food items (37.4%).
The share of cosmetics and perfumes in all purchases was especially higher for Chinese tourists with 84.4 percent. Tourists from other Asian nations such as Thailand (67.8%), Taiwan (64.6%), and Hong Kong (59.7%) had higher percentage of cosmetic and perfume buying. In contrast, Japanese visitors focused more on buying food items (66.5%).
The average spending by each foreign visitors while staying in Korea was US$1,605.50. This is down by $42.70 from the previous year when they spent an average of $1,648.20. By nationality, those from the Middle East spent most with their per-capita expenditure reaching $3,560, followed by the Chinese ($2,945), Singaporeans ($1,819.50) and Russians ($1,510.30). The country whose visitors spent least was Japan with its per-person spending reached only $999.10.
The total number of foreign visitors last year was 14.2 million, up 16.6 percent from the previous year, reaching a record-high level. By nationality, Chinese accounted for 43.1 percent in total with 6,126,000 visitors, followed by Japanese with 2,280,000 (16.1%).
