Chairman Park Yong-maan of Doosan Group and also chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry(KCCI).

Doosan Group, which has been named one of three new duty shop operators in Seoul, will set up its duty free shop on the 9th floor of the Doota Building in front of East Gate in Seoul, one of the busiest shopping districts in the capital city. It’s a bid to make the area one of the biggest tourism hubs in the city, a “K-style Town” linking the large shopping malls and Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) just across the street from its head office building, the Doota Building.

The group’s plan to turn the area into a giant shopping and tourism district is long overdue with the area becoming one of the favorite spots for Chinese tourists in Seoul.

Chairman Park Yong-maan personally took charge in clinching the license for the duty free shop and succeeded, encouraged by the area crowded by foreign tourists in all seasons, especially Chinese tourists, and group is behind the strategy.

Chairman Park donated 10 billion won last month to set up the Dongdaemun Future Creative Foundation as part of the group’s strategy to develop the area, centered around the new duty free shop. The strategy includes a plan to link shopping malls around the peripheries, searching out domestic commodity brands good enough for foreign tourists, and cooperation among SMEs to develop the commercial features of the area with the new duty free shop upfront.

Chairman Park also has decided to give 10 percent of the income from the duty free shop to society and provide financial help to cooperative firms and medium-sized duty free shops.

The group will also increase the number of the stands for domestic products at the new duty free shop to the extent that they will take up some 50 percent of the total commodities on sale there.

The group also has been working to expand the number of Chinese tourists arriving in Korea under a strategy calling for signing contracts with 26 Chinese tourist agencies, including such online tourism agency as the See Trip, to attract some 13 million tourists from the neighboring country over the next five years.

President Dong Hyun-soo of Doosan Inc. said we will try to help the Dongdaemun area as a representative tourism hub in Seoul so that the duty free shop will be able to make a great contribution to the national economy.

Lotte, Doosan and Shinsegae Groups have been selected as the operators of three duty-free stores in downtown Seoul as the stores' existing operating licenses expire this year.

Lotte has lost the license for one of its two duty-free stores each in Sogong-dong and the Lotte World Tower in Jamsil, southern Seoul. It will keep the store in Sogong-dong while Doosan has newly acquired the right to open a duty-free store.

Shinsegae has also replaced SK Group as a new operator.

As a result, the Lotte Duty Free Shop in the World Tower and the Walkerhill Duty Free Shop in Gwangjang-dong will no longer be in service.

A Doosan duty free shop will newly open in Dongdaemun and one by Shinsegae will debut in the shopping district of Myeongdong.

Shinsegae has also maintained the license for its existing duty free store in the southern port city Busan.

The selected firms will operate the stores for five years.

A view of the Doosan Tower near Dongdaemun, East Gate, in Seoul, where Doosan DF will open its duty-free shop on the 9th floor.

(Photos:Doosan Group)