More than 8,000 Chinese visitors enjoyed "samgyetang," or ginseng chicken soup, at a park alongside the Han River earlier this month, which might be worthy of mention in The Guinness Book of World Records.
Korean agents of the five-day incentive tours for the executives and employees of the Joy Main Group, a Chinese multilevel marketing firm, also organized excursions for them to royal palaces, shopping malls and souvenir shops, and estimated the economic impact of the tours to be 49.5 billion won ($41.5 million).
Government officials, central and local, as well as distribution businesses are trying hard to create "second and third Joy Main examples."
The question arose, however: Were the tours worth all the hubbub?
For starters, the Seoul Metropolitan Government footed the bill of 250 million won for the much-touted samgyetang party with taxpayers' money. During their five-day stay, the Chinese tourists visited major attractions in the capital city, including a design complex, floating islands, a folk art district, royal palaces, a theme park on the city's outskirts, shopping malls and duty-free shops.
They had up to two hours of free time at each stop but the economic effects of their shopping were concentrated on duty-free shops. Other shops on their itinerary even suffered losses, as Koreans avoided these places for fear of them being overcrowded. A riverside restaurant operating near the place of the samgyetang party, for instance, remained almost empty because more than a hundred local guests canceled their reservations.
A neighboring convenience store, which had built up its inventory to meet the expected surge in demand, saw its sales plunge 80 percent from the previous day, as organizers set up a barricade around the party site, blocking access to the store not only to Chinese tourists but to Korean visitors as well.
The Chinese tourists hardly opened their wallets in the Insa-dong cultural district, either, walking past cosmetic shops and street stores. "Typically, Chinese tourists have bought cosmetics up to 800,000 won per customer, but few Joy Main employees did that while they were here," said the owner of a Face Shop store. "I guess they all rushed to the duty-free shops."
Chicken and beer are the Chinese tourists' favorite snacks, thanks to a famous Korean TV drama. Few chicken restaurants around hotels where the Joy Main people were staying, however, rung up much in sales. "Tourists in large groups seldom spend at places other than those included in their itinerary," the owner of a chicken restaurant complained.
On the other hand, a few malls and duty-free shops hit the jackpot. Lotte Duty-Free Store, for instance, recorded sales of 20 billion won in just two days. "Given that these employees received cash incentives from their company, we had estimated that each of them would spend about 3.3 million won on duty-free shopping," said a Lotte official. Shilla Duty-Free Store also registered a sharp sales increase but stopped short of revealing any concrete figures.
Doota, a fashion mall in Dongdaemun (East Gate), also enjoyed a 30-percent sales increase through careful preparations by, for example, giving discount coupons exclusively to Joy Main visitors and securing large parking lots in nearby facilities.
By contrast, a souvenir shop at Imjingak, which provides a glimpse into North Korea through a telescope, recorded two-day sales of a meager 560,000 won.
"There are two groups of Chinese tourists – those who spend money and those who don't," a tour agent said. "Tourists who come in groups of 20 or more belong to the latter." Equally stingy are those who visit on incentive – or free – tours, he said, adding that the case of the Joy Main employees was no exception.
In response to the mounting skepticism about the "Joy Main effect," a Korean organizer attributed it to insufficient time. "Tourists need more free time to shop, but the recent tour was full of ‘official events' that they were pressed for time."
Korean agents of the five-day incentive tours for the executives and employees of the Joy Main Group, a Chinese multilevel marketing firm, also organized excursions for them to royal palaces, shopping malls and souvenir shops, and estimated the economic impact of the tours to be 49.5 billion won ($41.5 million).
Government officials, central and local, as well as distribution businesses are trying hard to create "second and third Joy Main examples."
The question arose, however: Were the tours worth all the hubbub?
For starters, the Seoul Metropolitan Government footed the bill of 250 million won for the much-touted samgyetang party with taxpayers' money. During their five-day stay, the Chinese tourists visited major attractions in the capital city, including a design complex, floating islands, a folk art district, royal palaces, a theme park on the city's outskirts, shopping malls and duty-free shops.
They had up to two hours of free time at each stop but the economic effects of their shopping were concentrated on duty-free shops. Other shops on their itinerary even suffered losses, as Koreans avoided these places for fear of them being overcrowded. A riverside restaurant operating near the place of the samgyetang party, for instance, remained almost empty because more than a hundred local guests canceled their reservations.
A neighboring convenience store, which had built up its inventory to meet the expected surge in demand, saw its sales plunge 80 percent from the previous day, as organizers set up a barricade around the party site, blocking access to the store not only to Chinese tourists but to Korean visitors as well.
The Chinese tourists hardly opened their wallets in the Insa-dong cultural district, either, walking past cosmetic shops and street stores. "Typically, Chinese tourists have bought cosmetics up to 800,000 won per customer, but few Joy Main employees did that while they were here," said the owner of a Face Shop store. "I guess they all rushed to the duty-free shops."
Chicken and beer are the Chinese tourists' favorite snacks, thanks to a famous Korean TV drama. Few chicken restaurants around hotels where the Joy Main people were staying, however, rung up much in sales. "Tourists in large groups seldom spend at places other than those included in their itinerary," the owner of a chicken restaurant complained.
On the other hand, a few malls and duty-free shops hit the jackpot. Lotte Duty-Free Store, for instance, recorded sales of 20 billion won in just two days. "Given that these employees received cash incentives from their company, we had estimated that each of them would spend about 3.3 million won on duty-free shopping," said a Lotte official. Shilla Duty-Free Store also registered a sharp sales increase but stopped short of revealing any concrete figures.
Doota, a fashion mall in Dongdaemun (East Gate), also enjoyed a 30-percent sales increase through careful preparations by, for example, giving discount coupons exclusively to Joy Main visitors and securing large parking lots in nearby facilities.
By contrast, a souvenir shop at Imjingak, which provides a glimpse into North Korea through a telescope, recorded two-day sales of a meager 560,000 won.
"There are two groups of Chinese tourists – those who spend money and those who don't," a tour agent said. "Tourists who come in groups of 20 or more belong to the latter." Equally stingy are those who visit on incentive – or free – tours, he said, adding that the case of the Joy Main employees was no exception.
In response to the mounting skepticism about the "Joy Main effect," a Korean organizer attributed it to insufficient time. "Tourists need more free time to shop, but the recent tour was full of ‘official events' that they were pressed for time."
Korean agents of the five-day incentive tours for the executives and employees of the Joy Main Group, a Chinese multilevel marketing firm, also organized excursions for them to royal palaces, shopping malls and souvenir shops, and estimated the economic impact of the tours to be 49.5 billion won ($41.5 million).
Government officials, central and local, as well as distribution businesses are trying hard to create "second and third Joy Main examples."
The question arose, however: Were the tours worth all the hubbub?
For starters, the Seoul Metropolitan Government footed the bill of 250 million won for the much-touted samgyetang party with taxpayers' money. During their five-day stay, the Chinese tourists visited major attractions in the capital city, including a design complex, floating islands, a folk art district, royal palaces, a theme park on the city's outskirts, shopping malls and duty-free shops.
They had up to two hours of free time at each stop but the economic effects of their shopping were concentrated on duty-free shops. Other shops on their itinerary even suffered losses, as Koreans avoided these places for fear of them being overcrowded. A riverside restaurant operating near the place of the samgyetang party, for instance, remained almost empty because more than a hundred local guests canceled their reservations.
A neighboring convenience store, which had built up its inventory to meet the expected surge in demand, saw its sales plunge 80 percent from the previous day, as organizers set up a barricade around the party site, blocking access to the store not only to Chinese tourists but to Korean visitors as well.
The Chinese tourists hardly opened their wallets in the Insa-dong cultural district, either, walking past cosmetic shops and street stores. "Typically, Chinese tourists have bought cosmetics up to 800,000 won per customer, but few Joy Main employees did that while they were here," said the owner of a Face Shop store. "I guess they all rushed to the duty-free shops."
Chicken and beer are the Chinese tourists' favorite snacks, thanks to a famous Korean TV drama. Few chicken restaurants around hotels where the Joy Main people were staying, however, rung up much in sales. "Tourists in large groups seldom spend at places other than those included in their itinerary," the owner of a chicken restaurant complained.
On the other hand, a few malls and duty-free shops hit the jackpot. Lotte Duty-Free Store, for instance, recorded sales of 20 billion won in just two days. "Given that these employees received cash incentives from their company, we had estimated that each of them would spend about 3.3 million won on duty-free shopping," said a Lotte official. Shilla Duty-Free Store also registered a sharp sales increase but stopped short of revealing any concrete figures.
Doota, a fashion mall in Dongdaemun (East Gate), also enjoyed a 30-percent sales increase through careful preparations by, for example, giving discount coupons exclusively to Joy Main visitors and securing large parking lots in nearby facilities.
By contrast, a souvenir shop at Imjingak, which provides a glimpse into North Korea through a telescope, recorded two-day sales of a meager 560,000 won.
"There are two groups of Chinese tourists – those who spend money and those who don't," a tour agent said. "Tourists who come in groups of 20 or more belong to the latter." Equally stingy are those who visit on incentive – or free – tours, he said, adding that the case of the Joy Main employees was no exception.
In response to the mounting skepticism about the "Joy Main effect," a Korean organizer attributed it to insufficient time. "Tourists need more free time to shop, but the recent tour was full of ‘official events' that they were pressed for time."