Rising foreign tourist numbers help revive Myeong-dong’s storefront occupancy rates

A surge in foreign tourism is driving renewed demand for retail and office space in Seoul’s iconic shopping district of Myeong-dong, where the vacancy rate has plummeted from 52.5 percent to just 4.9 percent, data showed Sunday. Data released by real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield Korea showed that only 4.9 percent of storefronts in Myeong-dong were vacant in the second quarter of 2025. This marks a significant improvement compared to the second quarter of 2022, when 52.5 percent of stores were vacant due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on overseas tourism. The current vacancy rate is now roughly one-tenth of what it was during the pandemic’s peak. The dramatic change comes as a result of the number of foreign tourists hitting a record 8.83 million in the first half of 2025. This surge in tourism represents a 14.6 percent increase from the same period last year and a 4.6 percent rise over the previous high of 8.44 million, set in the first half of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. The welcome revival in storefront occupancy has been driven largely by beauty and liWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times