Spending by foreign visitors to Korea is shifting from a focus on luxury goods to "everyday consumption" experiencing K-fashion and K-food.
Lotte Members announced on the 20th that it published the "L.POINT Foreign Tourist Consumption Trend Report," which analyzed the spending journey and preferred items of foreign tourists visiting Korea based on L.POINT transaction data from April 2025 to May 2026.
According to the report, foreign tourists' spending began with encountering social media content before their visit to Korea. Seongsu emerged as the "ignition point" where new brands are first discovered, while Myeong-dong and department stores established themselves as "conversion points" where verified demand leads to actual purchases. The analysis found that consumption experiences in Korea spread again through social media reviews and content after tourists return home, prompting new spending.
Foreign customers were also found to be actively purchasing not only luxury and global brands but also domestic K-fashion brands representing Seongsu-dong. An analysis of foreign purchase brands at Lotte Department Store based on the number of customers showed that domestic fashion brands popular in Seongsu accounted for 27% of the top 15 brands.
Everyday life in Korea also filled foreigners' shopping baskets. In particular, sales of ramen, a "national snack," stood out. According to purchase data from Lotte Mart's Zettaplex Seoul Station branch, "Paldo & Yangban Seaweed Soup Ramen" recorded the highest sales volume. Lotte Wellfood's "Zero Fruit Jelly," "Zero Crunch Chocoball," and "Zero Cacao Cake" also ranked among the top five in sales.
By region, Busan emerged as a key hub for Taiwanese tourists. Among foreign customers at Lotte Department Store and Lotte Mart in the Busan area, Taiwanese accounted for more than half. Purchase ratios for snacks (81%), bagged ramen (69%), and processed seaweed products (61%) were higher than those of foreign tourists visiting Seoul, showing consumption characteristics unique to Busan.
Advancing K-Food Soars on the Back of Ramen
The K-food craze led by ramen is also translating into record-high export performance. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs recently announced that the preliminary K-Food Plus (K-Food+) export figure for the first half of 2026 was tallied at $7.05 billion, up 4.1% from the same period a year earlier, marking the highest first-half export performance on record. K-Food+ is a concept that encompasses the entire agricultural industry, including fertilizer and agricultural machinery, in addition to K-food, which covers agricultural products and processed foods.
By export value, the United States recorded the largest amount at $1.04 billion (up 11.3%). In the U.S. market, exports of ramen ($175.3 million), snacks ($150.1 million), and kimchi ($24.6 million) were high. Second place was China, which posted exports of $810 million, up 9.4% from the same period a year earlier. Ramen exports to China reached $217.6 million.
Among all product categories, ramen among processed foods rose sharply by 27.9% from the previous year to $935.4 million. If this trend continues, ramen exports are expected to surpass $1 billion in July, more than a month earlier than last year.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, last year's K-food exports totaled $10.41 billion, up 4.3% from the previous year, surpassing $10 billion for the first time. The export target for K-Food+, which combines K-food with fertilizer and agricultural machinery, is $16 billion this year.
Overseas interest in K-food overall is growing by the day. In the "2026 Overseas Hallyu Survey" (based on 2025 data) released in March by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange, 69.7% of 27,400 people who had experienced Korean cultural content across 30 countries worldwide responded positively to Korean cultural content. Respondents cited "food" (55.1%) as the most popular Hallyu field in their own countries. The response that they had actually experienced Korean food (78.0%) exceeded that of film (77.9%), drama (72.9%), and music (71.9%).
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