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At 8:30 a.m. on the 27th, about 30 international travelers dragging large suitcases gathered by Exit 4 of Myeong-dong Station in Seoul. Their backgrounds ranged from a young couple from Hong Kong to sisters from Singapore, but their destination was unanimous: Shinsegae Simon’s Yeoju Premium Outlets in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province.
They were waiting for the tour bus to Yeoju. Since April last year Shinsegae Simon has partnered with inbound agency Wondertrip to run a Yeoju Premium Outlets one-day tour. Buses leave from Hongdae and Myeong-dong, shoppers stay at the outlet for five to six hours, then return to their starting point.
What began as a twice-weekly service last year grew to three times a week in January due to demand. That day, bookings topped the usual 35-person capacity, so an additional bus departed from Hongdae.
About 10 minutes later the tour bus arrived. While the guide checked names, passengers loaded luggage into the bus hold. Rio (27), traveling from Hong Kong, is on his second trip to Korea. He and his girlfriend, Bi (27), had just finished a Busan itinerary and a day trip to Gapyeong. Their schedule is jam-packed before they fly back to Hong Kong on Sunday, but shopping at Korea’s largest outlet in Yeoju was nonnegotiable.
“People back home recommended this tour a lot,” Rio said. “I heard this is the biggest outlet in Korea.” Bi added, “It’s only an hour and a half from Seoul, so it’s pretty accessible. Having so many brands in one place should make shopping easy.”
Targeting repeat visitors
Shinsegae Simon designed the tour to attract repeat visitors—travelers who return to Korea multiple times. As Korean tourism has boomed, a growing share of visitors are repeat travelers. The Korea Culture & Tourism Institute’s provisional 2025 Foreign Visitor Survey (Q4) found that 56.6% of foreign visitors had made multiple trips to Korea.
For these visitors, shopping is a major draw: the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute reports that shopping accounts for 57.6% of the reasons foreigners consider visiting Korea.
Repeat visitors like Rio have already done the downtown circuit—Myeong-dong, Gangnam—so they’re seeking fresh shopping experiences. Outlets such as Yeoju are a natural next stop. Where tourists once focused on Seoul duty-free shops, many are now expanding their shopping routes to suburban outlets.
This shift is tied to the rise of free independent travelers (FITs). FITs plan their own itineraries, which pushes their travel beyond central Seoul to nearby cities and provinces. Like Rio, they might tack on Busan and Gapyeong before stopping at the Yeoju outlets.
Lee Yo-seok (36), a Wondertrip guide for the Yeoju one-day tour, said that multi-day package tours used to dominate, but now more young travelers book single-day tours. “They plan their trip themselves and use packaged tours for just one day,” he explained.
Jun, a traveler in his 30s from Singapore, is already on his sixth trip to Korea as an FIT. He’s traveling with his sister Janice, who is visiting Korea for the first time. They plan to swap Pokémon cards in Yongsan and shop in Seongsu, but they made Yeoju their first stop.
“Outlet discounts beat regular retail,” Jun said. “I always check out premium outlets when I travel. The exchange rate is better than in Singapore, and with tax refunds you can get great pieces at lower prices.”
Luxury brands and easy access
Many visitors pick Yeoju because of its brand lineup. Yeoju Premium Outlets is the only outlet in Korea that carries all three major luxury outlet brands—Gucci, Prada and Burberry. “I came because Yeoju has luxury labels you don’t find at other outlets,” Jun said.
Convenient transport is another draw. Besides tour buses, Shinsegae Simon runs express buses directly from Gangnam Express Bus Terminal to the outlet. Sithe (29) from Thailand, on his fifth trip to Korea, has already visited Yeoju twice.
“I used to take the express bus, but this time I took the one-day tour,” he said. “There are so many brands here you can finish your shopping in one trip, and getting here from Seoul is easy.”
Interest in the tour service has surged: ridership this month is ten times higher than in the first month of operation last April. Foreign riders on the direct express buses have also increased about fivefold since the service began.
As more international visitors arrive via these transport options, foreign-driven sales have climbed. From January to February this year, Yeoju Premium Outlets handled an average of more than 8,000 tax-refund transactions per month—roughly double the same period last year. Korea Tourism Organization data shows foreign spending at Yeoju’s major shopping malls also nearly doubled year over year.
The increase in foreign customers has boosted tenant sales. Choi Young-won, a partner on the Shinsegae Simon Yeoju marketing team, said brands such as Loewe, Lululemon and Maison Margiela have seen sharp sales growth thanks to the rise in international shoppers.
Aiming to be Asia’s top outlet
Since Kim Young-seop became CEO at the end of 2022, Shinsegae Simon has focused on expanding its FIT base, even creating a customer planning unit. Group tour visitors follow fixed schedules and don’t always convert to purchases, whereas FITs come specifically to shop and tend to spend more per visit.
Shinsegae Simon has invested in transport infrastructure—express buses and tour buses—to attract FITs. Unlike competitors, Yeoju relies more on FIT visitors than group tours, so improving access is essential. Japan’s Gotemba Premium Outlets, for example, links Tokyo Station, Shinjuku and Shibuya with 13 bus routes—demonstrating how transport connectivity drives foreign sales.
Shinsegae Simon continues to work with travel agencies in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia to attract FIT travelers and runs targeted micro-influencer campaigns across six markets: China, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.
Kang Subin, partner in Shinsegae Simon’s customer planning unit, said, “Since we began social media marketing, response rates have been especially high in Japan and Taiwan. Unlike arrival statistics, shoppers from these two countries are making up a rapidly growing share of sales at Yeoju Premium Outlets.”
Shinsegae Simon plans to keep developing products for foreign tourists. Shin Si-nook, head of the customer planning unit, said demand from Southeast Asian visitors to experience snow in Korea is rising, so the company plans to create combined outlet-and-tour packages—like bus trips linked to Gangwon Province ski tourism.
Through these efforts, Shinsegae Simon aims to position Yeoju Premium Outlets as a leading Asian outlet. Kim Hee-seok, manager of Yeoju Premium Outlets, said, “We plan to raise foreign sales to the level of top global outlets like Woodbury Common in the U.S. and Gotemba in Japan. Our goal is to make Yeoju a must-visit on Korea itineraries.”
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