Korea Sale Festa

[Anchor Lead]

Korea Sale Festa, the largest shopping event in Korea, is in full swing until this Sunday. On the first weekend of the event, some department stores saw crowds of people, but stores in Myeongdong, a shopping Mecca for foreign tourists, showed rather disappointing results.

[Pkg]

Shoppers trying on clothes crowd the fronts of department store stalls. This department store is having a sale during Korea Sale Festa, the largest shopping event in the country. Marking its third year, this shopping celebration has major department stores presenting an array of discounted items to attract customers.

[Soundbite] Han Tae-gyu(Shopper from Seoul) : "All the items were on sale today. A lot more items are on sale than usual."

One department store tabulated that its sales on the first two days of the event rose 12% from the same time frame last year. However, the atmosphere was different in Myeongdong, which is the favorite shopping destination of foreign tourists. Banners were hung on only a few streets and only a handful of stores were taking part in the event.

[Soundbite] (Merchant in Myeongdong(Voice Modified)) : "What's the use of a sale if people are not buying? There are lots of people, but they're not buying."

The number of participating businesses fell moderately from last year, down to roughly 410 businesses. Also, the event period was shortened substantially from 34 days to 10 days this year, and the budget was cut by over a third, from 5.1 billion won to 3.4 billion won. Unlike Black Friday in the United States in which retailers voluntarily mark down their products, Korea Sale Festa is a government-led project, which has limitations in goading stores into knocking down prices by big margins to boost sales. The event organizers expect the sales figures to improve once Chinese tourists flock to Korea, starting today, the first day of a long holiday week in China.