"We came to buy ramen right before heading to the airport"... Foreigners sweeping up K-food, Lunar New Year holiday scenes [On-site report]

Photo by Reporter Park Kyung-ho. Suitcases left by foreign tourists for shopping are stored in one section of the Lotte Mart Zettaplex Seoul Station Branch on the 18th. Photo by Reporter Park Kyung-ho.
Photo by Reporter Park Kyung-ho. Suitcases left by foreign tourists for shopping are stored in one section of the Lotte Mart Zettaplex Seoul Station Branch on the 18th. Photo by Reporter Park Kyung-ho.Photo by Reporter Park Kyung-ho. Suitcases left by foreign tourists for shopping are stored in one section of the Lotte Mart Zettaplex Seoul Station Branch on the 18th. Photo by Reporter Park Kyung-ho.
On the last day of the Lunar New Year holiday, the Lotte Mart Zettaplex Seoul Station Branch was packed with foreign visitors trying to stock up on K-snacks before heading to the airport. Inside the store, Chinese and Japanese could be heard everywhere, and shoppers wearing hijabs from the Middle East and backpackers from Europe mingled together, making the scene feel more like an international airport terminal.
With more than 180,000 Chinese tourists expected to visit during this Lunar New Year holiday, the Lotte Mart Zettaplex Seoul Station Branch placed promotional products targeting them prominently throughout the store. Li Chen, a Chinese tourist visiting Korea for the holiday, said, "I’m planning to buy souvenirs for my parents and friends," adding, "I came here to buy ginseng and snacks.
" She went on, "It’s convenient because this is the last place where I can do some shopping before going to the airport. " Leveraging its location at Seoul Station, the Lotte Mart Zettaplex Seoul Station Branch has become famous among foreign tourists as the final shopping stop before flying home.
In fact, store guides were provided in four languages—Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese—and at the international shipping (EMS) service desk, an employee was assisting tourists in fluent Chinese next to a Chinese-language information banner. On this day, an estimated 60–70% of customers in the store were foreigners.
Most of them were from Greater China and Japan, underscoring the store’s status as a must-visit K-food shopping destination for overseas visitors. A foreign tourist shops with a basket full of K-food at the Lotte Mart Zettaplex Seoul Station Branch on the 18th.
Photo by Reporter Park Kyung-ho. A Japanese tourist surnamed Chuma said, "This is my second visit to Seoul, and my must-buy shopping list here includes Olive Young, Boksundoga, and snacks and seaweed from Lotte Mart," explaining, "All of these stores are located at Seoul Station, so I make time to come here and shop.
Photo by Reporter Park Kyung-ho. Suitcases left by foreign tourists for shopping are stored in one section of the Lotte Mart Zettaplex Seoul Station Branch on the 18th. Photo by Reporter Park Kyung-ho.Photo by Reporter Park Kyung-ho. Suitcases left by foreign tourists for shopping are stored in one section of the Lotte Mart Zettaplex Seoul Station Branch on the 18th. Photo by Reporter Park Kyung-ho.
The most popular items here were not blockbuster products like Shin Ramyun or Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen. Instead, foreign tourists were seeking out niche products that can only be purchased in Korea.
“Old-Fashioned Spicy Japchae,” developed jointly by Ottogi and Lotte Mart, once ranked first in the ramyun category at the Zettaplex branch. Paldo’s "Paldo & Yangban Seaweed Soup Ramyun," sold exclusively at Lotte Mart, topped ramyun sales last year at 10 foreigner-focused stores.
A store representative noted, "The key factor was that these products allow tourists to experience Korea’s unique food culture. " Samyang Foods was selling a "Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen ‘Only’ Set" as a gift item for foreign tourists, while Lotte Wellfood targeted overseas customers with its "Pepero Gwanghwamun & Irworobongdo Edition," featuring designs inspired by Gwanghwamun and the traditional Irworobongdo painting.
Fitting its role as a foreigner-focused store, the share of sales from foreign tourists at the Lotte Mart Seoul Station branch reaches about 40%. Tailored payment infrastructure such as Alipay and UnionPay also made shopping more convenient for overseas visitors.
Lee Eun-hee, a professor in the Department of Consumer Science at Inha University, analyzed, "At a time when domestic consumption is sluggish, foreign tourists are emerging as a new growth engine. " She added, "In the past, spending centered on luxury goods, but now it is shifting toward consumer goods, and related industries are benefiting from this trend.
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security@fnnews.com Park Kyung-ho Reporter