Japanese duty-free shopping in Korea way up.

Fewer Koreans are using domestic duty-free shops, while the number of Japanese shoppers is way up:

. . . [S]pending by Koreans at duty free shops accounted for $166.3 million in November 2007, which is 71.4 percent out of total sales, but total spending by Koreans last month was $72.6 million, or 36.4 percent.

The number of foreign travelers going to duty free shops also outnumbered local shoppers last month.

In November 2007, Korean shoppers were estimated around 1.39 million, around 84 percent. But the number of Korean shoppers declined to 800,000, or 56.9 percent.

Among foreign shoppers, Japanese tourists visited Korean duty free shops the most. Last month, 605,000 Japanese travelers visited Korean duty free shops, from 265,000 Japanese tourists a year earlier.

Good news for Korea, because in spite of the contempt with which Koreans generally view Japanese, Japan is the nearest country and that the number of Japanese tourists was decreasing was a bit of a problem. In spite of the attention paid to attracting "foreign" tourists to Korea, and the implication that these will be English-speaking foreigners, Japanese are still the largest contingent of travelers to Korea. In October, for example, Japanese visitors to Korea outnumbered those from all of Europe by more than 3:1. Not surprising, then, that the government chose actor and Japanese adjumma heart-throb Bae Yong-joon as the Ambassador for Korean Tourism.