City Duty Free said on the 26th that it will work with the Jeju Tourism Organization to use its Incheon International Airport duty-free store as a base to expand global sales channels for Jeju local brands.
City Duty Free and the Jeju Tourism Organization signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the 21st to "strengthen the global competitiveness of Jeju local brands and achieve joint growth in the duty-free business."
The agreement is a public-private cooperation model to support the overseas expansion of promising Jeju brands based on the departure-area store at Incheon International Airport. Under the plan, City Duty Free will set up a "Jeju promotion zone" in its Incheon Airport store, and the Jeju Tourism Organization will use and support its local brand network and global marketing infrastructure.
In particular, the two sides will expand cooperation to include development of joint private brand (PB) and collaboration products, and plan to push for joint development of premium K liquors in partnership with traditional liquor makers. They will also run campaigns tied to Jeju Air's "resumption of the Incheon-Jeju route" and campaigns to broaden touchpoints between foreign tourists and Jeju brands.
According to the Jeju Tourism Organization, 13,846,900 tourists visited Jeju last year. Of them, 11,602,700 were domestic travelers and 2,244,100 were foreigners. Travel demand is continuing this year as well. Based on the Jeju Tourism Big Data Platform, 3,247,360 tourists entered Jeju from January to March this year, up 18.2% from a year earlier. Foreigners accounted for 10.3%.
Ahn Hye-jin, CEO of City Duty Free, said, "This will be a starting point to share Jeju's value with the world from the global hub platform that is Incheon Airport," adding, "We will serve as a win-win platform that links the end of a trip to Korea with the start of a return visit to Jeju."
Ko Seung-cheol, president of the Jeju Tourism Organization, said, "This agreement has opened a channel for Jeju local brands to enter the global market," adding, "We will actively support them by using the organization's marketing infrastructure."