hankyoreh

in front of stores with signs written in Chinese characters

If there is a “youke windfall” in Myeongdong these days, it’s news to Mr. Lee, the 50-year-old manager of a clothing shop in the busy Seoul neighborhood for the past 30 years.

Some 100,000 Chinese tourists - known commonly by the Chinese word “youke” - visited South Korea over their country’s long Labour Day weekend. For many of them, Myeongdong was a must-see stop on their itinerary.

“Chinese people don’t really buy clothes,” said Lee while standing in the spacious store waiting for customers on May 5.

It wasn’t so three to four years ago when it was Japanese tourists who descended on Myeongdong, Lee added.

“The Japanese ones went everywhere in Myeongdong, eating bulgogi [fried beef] and getting nail art or massages and buying clothes,” Lee recalled. “All the businesses benefited.”

“Now that the Myeongdong commercial area has become more Chinese-centered, it’s only the cosmetics stores that are doing well. They go where the guides tell them to, and it seems like a formula: Dongdaemun for clothes, Hongik University area for accessories, Myeongdong for cosmetics.”

The skewing of Myeong-dong’s business is also evident on its menus. Chinese tourists are rarely found in restaurants that don’t sell authentic Korean cuisine. Not a single Chinese customer could be found on the afternoon of May 1 at the Italian restaurant Kofoo Plate’s Myeongdong branch.

“You have to cater to Chinese customers in Myeongdong, and it seems like there are fewer customers than expected because we’re not selling ‘Korean food,’” said Kim Su-ji, a director at the company.

Indeed, the neighborhood’s Burger King closed down last month after 30 years of business.

Cosmetics are now the new face of Myeongdong.

“The Chinese tourists who used to spend a million won (US$920) are now spending just 500,000 won (US$460). It doesn’t seem like they spend a lot in Myeongdong,” said one proprietor who has worked at an area cosmetic store for over five years. The store’s brand has four other shops in Myeongdong alone.

“But obviously we like it better when it’s a Chinese customer spending hundreds of dollars instead of a South Korean spending ten or twenty dollars,” the proprietor added.

Myeongdong was known in the past as the “number one area for fashion shopping.” Today, it has become the number one area for cosmetics instead. It’s a transition that is evident from the statistics: a survey of business by Seoul’s Jung District Office found the number of clothing retailers declining from 730 in 2007 to 477 in 2010, and 331 in 2013. Meanwhile, a survey by local merchants found a veritable explosion in cosmetics stores - from 21 in 2008 to 134 as of Jan. 2015. With a total of 586 buildings in the neighborhood, the number means roughly one out of every four sells cosmetics.

The stores can be seen lining the major commercial streets that are driving up area rental prices: Myeongdong Road from Noon Square to the Catholic Center, Chungmuro Road in front of the Daeyeongak Building, 1st Street between UNESCO Center and Hanseong Chinese Elementary School, Jungang Road from the Migliore building to Eulji Road, and 3rd Street from the Korea Exchange Bank main branch to Myeongdong Subway Station.

“It’s only cosmetic stores and name-brand businesses that move into the main roads where rents are high,” said the owner of a doughnut store that pays 15 million won (US$13,800) a month in rent alone for its 66-square-meter space. “Other businesses end up being pushed back onto the side streets.”

With the roads of Myeongdong now papered in red and gold advertisements bearing Chinese characters, the area’s longest-standing merchants are now looking for a way out of a neighborhood that is attracting youke almost exclusively. Their fear is that it is ending up a one-note district of cosmetics stores and bars.

On Apr. 9, the Myeongdong Tourism District Council, an association of local building owners and merchants, invited tourism experts for a round table discussion on the commercial neighborhood’s present and future.

“Myeongdong is so far out of balance now that the commercial zone would be gutted if the international situation or exchange rate changed and the number of Chinese tourists in South Korea fell,” said Lee Dong-hee, a department director with the council.

“Some of the merchants are saying Myeongdong needs to become a neighborhood like Itaewon or Samcheong, which are convenient for Koreans and people of different nationalities to visit,” Lee added. “We’ve got to find a unique character for Myeongdong.”

Myeongdong merchants are also planning to hold a discussion later this month to talk about the neighborhood’s future.

Seoul Metropolitan Government has its own fears about the youke phenomenon.

“It’s only Chinese tourists pouring in, not just in Myeongdong but at other tourist sites too,” said an official on the tourism support team for the city’s tourism policy department. “It’s causing problems.”

“We’re working on setting up comprehensive tourism measures in response,” the official added.

In developing promotional materials for “Welcome Week for Foreign Tourists,” which lasts until May 10, the city decided to use the color pink as a message of welcome to tourists of all nationalities, rather than the red and gold favored by the Chinese.

“Because of the geographical advantage, we can expect the skewing toward Chinese tourists to continue for the next few years,” predicted Kim Yeong-ju, director of industry research for the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute. “We need to transform this cosmetics-focused tourism culture by developing different cultural products and offering high-quality tourism services.”

By Choi Woo-ri, staff reporter

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