The Korea Customs Service expects that new duty-free businesses in Seoul and elsewhere will create 5,000 new jobs and 1 trillion won in investments.

The KCS announced last Friday that it would issue four additional licenses to operate duty-free shops in Seoul in a bid to meet rising demand from Chinese tourists for non-taxable goods.

Duty-free stores, mostly run by retail giants such as Lotte Group, posted a combined 9.2 trillion won ($8 billion) in sales last year, with an average growth of 15.1 percent over the past decade.

An estimated 16.5 million foreigners are expected to visit Korea by the end of this year and a projected 20 million in 2017, up from 14 million in 2014. The Chinese accounted for more than a quarter of total foreign visitors.