As locals spend less after dark, tourists keep Seoul nightlife buzzing

Elias Fournier, a tourist from Lyon, France, was lining up at the pojangmacha (tented street stalls) strip at Jongno 3-ga in central Seoul with two friends on Tuesday night, joining a growing line of foreign visitors eager to experience Seoul's late-night food culture.

It was already 11 p.m. — an hour when he would normally be at home back in Lyon. But with less than a day left before his flight home, Fournier was determined to make the most of Seoul after dark. The evening itinerary included one last meal at a pojangmacha after final stop at a cosmetics store for sheet masks, one of Korea's best-known beauty exports.

“In France, after 9 p.m., there's not much open except bars, and you can't really go shopping,” Fournier said. “But here, the spending just keeps going.”
Fournier and his friends are part of a growing wave of foreign tourists breathing new life into Korea's nighttime economy, emerging as key drivers of after-dark consumption. They're filling a gap left by declining numbers of corporate dinners and reduced late-night spending by locals following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

Their growing presence after dark is prompting retailers and small restaurant owners to adapt, stocking products favored by foreign visitors and extending operating hours to capture their spending.

Cosmopolitan nights

Late-night shoppers in Korea come from a wide range of nationalities, with their purchases spanning beauty products such as sheet masks and cleansing foams as well as late-night snack items including beer and dried seafood.

Nadia Reyes, a nurse from Manila on her third visit to Seoul, said she does not spend as much in the night anywhere else. “In Bangkok there are night markets, but that is all there is,” she said. “Here it is eleven o’clock and the restaurant is open, the convenience store is open, the cosmetics shop down the street is open. I spend more after dinner than I did all afternoon.”

A total of 8.23 million foreign tourists visited the capital in the first half of this year, up 21.3 percent from the same period last year, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Their card spending in Seoul surged 56.8 percent on year to 5.62 trillion won ($3.87 billion) during the January-June period. Shopping and the medical and wellness sectors led the increase in spending.

The pattern is also showing up in sales data for some of the country’s largest retailers.

At Emart24, late-night hours emerged as the biggest spending window for foreign customers. The 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. period accounted for 37 percent of daily sales from foreign shoppers, the largest share among all time slots, based on an analysis of sales from July 20 to 26. The 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. period followed with 35 percent. Sales peaked at around 10 p.m. and held until midnight, which the chain attributes to customers picking up drinks, alcohol and ready meals after a night out or en route back to their hotels.

Other retailers are also seeing foreign shoppers drive late-night sales. At CU’s Myeongdong Station branch, one of the chain’s top stores among foreign customers, the busiest hours are from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. At Olive Young’s Doota branch in Dongdaemun, more than half of sales to foreign customers in the first half of this year came after 8 p.m., with foreign shoppers accounting for about 80 percent of the store’s total sales.

Retailers are rebuilding around the new customer. Olive Young reopened its Doota branch on Feb. 28, expanded from roughly 260 square meters (2,800 feet) to about 990 and kept shopping open until midnight, with wider aisles for suitcases, sinks for testing products and staff holding foreign language or beauty skills.

Convenience store chains have also moved on payments. 7-Eleven added Taiwan’s Line Pay in April, and CU’s sales on overseas payment methods rose 86.3 percent in the first half against a year earlier. Its NewWave branch in Myeongdong has signs for its ramyeon aisle in English, Chinese and Japanese, all next to a K-pop photocard section.

Emart24 introduced Line Pay Taiwan on May 1 and runs digital ATMs that exchange currency and issue prepaid cards at stores in Seongsu in eastern Seoul and Haeundae in Busan.

“We opened a K-Food Lab branch in Myeongdong with a dedicated ramyeon zone and a K-culture zone selling K-pop goods alongside Korean food,” said a spokesperson for Emart24, adding the retailer plans to keep expanding services and content aimed at foreign customers.

Street-level windfall

The late-night spending is lifting not only the big chains but also the self-employed owners who run the country’s street stalls and corner stores — one of the industries worst hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Korean late-night spending has been contracting since the pandemic's breakout.

There were a total of 13,924 pubs and casual bars in Seoul in the first quarter of this year, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The number has declined for two consecutive years, from 16,292 in the first quarter of 2024 and 14,938 in the first quarter of 2025.

“Koreans have been cutting back on late-night spending since the pandemic, with high prices and economic uncertainty,” said Lee Hong-joo, a professor in the Department of Consumer Economics at Sookmyung Women’s University. “Foreigners are taking up the share of the pie that Koreans have given up.”

But owners are finding new hope in foreign tourists.

“Years ago, if you came here at eleven at night, I would have been stacking chairs,” said a person surnamed Kim, who runs a pojangmacha. “Now after eleven, seven tables out of 10 are foreigners. My late-night sales are close to double what they were three years ago.”

The adjustments run down to street level. Kim put his menu into English and Chinese two years ago and now keeps his grill lit until two in the morning rather than midnight. “I used to close down while people were still trying to order,” he said, saying that it was better back in the day to wrap up early. Now he says the customers pour in even more during late night hours, making the choice to close down unprofitable. 

Back on the alley at half past eleven, every table is full. Somewhere near the corner a glass goes up and a toast rings out in newly learned Korean, and half the street answers it. At midnight, the hour he used to lock up, Kim looks down the row of tables and lights the grill again.

Foreigners also buy larger quantities, contributing to higher average spending per visit.

“Korean customers come in for cigarettes and a drink and they are gone,” said Jung Min-hye, who runs a corner store near Myeongdong that stays open 24 hours a day. “Foreigners buy five, six things and take their time. I started stocking sheet masks because they kept asking, mostly people flying out the next morning who realize they forgot something.”

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]