Traveller Insights for Incheon Airport

As Incheon Airport calls for proposals for the duty free contracts that expire in February of 2015, in this post I analyze the consumer behavior of the nationalities who travel through Incheon to provide some insights that might benefit those firms readying their bids.

To do this analysis, I have adopted the approach I described in a previous post on Sydney Airport - we produce a composite profile of consumers by combining the data from different nationalities according to the number of travellers each nationality contributes to the overall traffic to Seoul.  Koreans are also singled out for closer scrutiny because they are the "locals" and because they are so numerous relative to the other nationalities.

Here are the key insights that bidders might take into account as they develop their proposals for Incheon:

• Koreans love duty free shops in airports, visitors to Korea don't.
• There are more Destination Shoppers, Practical Shoppers and Brand Shoppers among travellers in Korea and fewer Cultural Explorers, Memento Shoppers and Bargain Shoppers.
• Koreans are spending signficantly less when they travel and those nationalities visiting Korea significantly more than average.
• Distinct merchandise strategies are required for visitors to Korea compared to local Koreans.
• Koreans plan their purchases more thoroughly than visitors to Korea.
• Chanel, LV, Gucci, Burberry, Prada, Hermes and Bulgari are more desirable than elsewhere in the world and Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein and Giorgio Armani, Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren are less desirable fashion brands.
• Visitors to Korea who buy alcohol are looking more for special edition products and less for discounts off products they would buy at home.
• Travellers in Korea who buy beauty products interact more with beauty consultants and they want the consultants to tell them what is new and what is trending. 
• Chanel, Lancome, Burberry, Bulgari and Biotherm are more popular beauty brands in Korea than elsewhere
• Dunhill is about twice as popular a brand of cigarettes among Koreans as it is among visitors to Korea.  The opposite is true for Davidoff and Kent.
• There is a much greater appetite among buyers of tobacco to buy brands that are different from home
• Travellers in Korea are more likely to buy boxes of chocolates than any other product type, including bars, blocks and bags.
• Hershey and Godiva are more popular among travellers in Korea and Toblerone, Lindt, Cadbury and Mars are extremely weak compared to other parts of the world. 

 For more detail and background on each of these topics, or to explore their implications please contact me directly: cesa@market-research.com

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