It was a quiet weekday lunchtime on March 4 at Sorae Port Fish Market in Incheon. Upon entering the market, vendors began calling out, “Come here,” continuing their aggressive solicitation. One vendor grabbed the reporter’s arm, offering “40,000 won for 1 kg of webfoot octopus.” When the reporter expressed a desire to look around more, the vendor quickly lowered the price to “35,000 won for 1 kg.” The owner of the neighboring shop offered “30,000 won for 1 kg of premium webfoot octopus.”
Sorae Port in Incheon has recently faced issues such as blind pricing, adding water to increase the weight of products, mixing in damaged snow crabs with missing legs or damaged bodies. As the controversy intensified, the vendors made a bow together last year and promised, “We will show our efforts to self-regulate with a bone-cutting attitude.”
However, a visit to the port that day revealed little change. General consumers still found it difficult to know the exact standard price per kg for each item. One shop owner quoted “28,000 won for 1 kg of medium-sized ark clams.” According to the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives, the price of ark clams from Yeosu that day was about 1,800 won for 1 kg of medium-sized. It is difficult for consumers to know these price differences individually.
South Korea, the world’s 13th largest economy by GDP, continues to struggle with its notorious reputation as a “rip-off republic.” Despite the global popularity of K-culture attracting 11.03 million foreign visitors to South Korea last year, there is ongoing controversy over price gouging in well-known traditional markets, major commercial districts like Myeong-dong, and popular tourist destinations such as Jeju Island and Gangwon Province.
Around 4 p.m. on March 3, the Myeong-dong shopping district was so crowded with foreign tourists that it was nearly impossible to move freely. English, Chinese, and Japanese conversations filled the air. At one street food restaurant, popular with dozens of foreign tourists, six rolls of mini kimbap, each the size of a finger joint, were sold for 6,000 won, which is about 50% more expensive than average prices. Butter-grilled squid was priced at 15,000 won, three times the price of similar offerings in major domestic cinemas. A Vietnamese tourist expressed shock at the high prices, saying, “All the prices were much higher than expected.”
There have also been numerous reports of “menu change” and “arbitrary change of minimum order requirement.” At Gwangjang Market last month, a famous travel Vloggers on YouTube ordered a menu of Sundae (Korean blood sausages) priced at 8,000 won, but the vendor served an assortment of Sundae mixed with offal for 10,000 won, leading to accusations of so-called “menu change”. At Jagalchi Market in Busan, a vendor who said “You need to order at least five servings of grilled hagfish,” to a customer who ordered two servings of it stirred up anger in online communities. A YouTube video showing a vendor at Seomun Market in Daegu trying to sell a fake mink hat to a Japanese tourist for 200,000 won provoked controversy. People can buy the product for 40,000 to 50,000 won at many South Korean online shopping malls.
“Tourism pricing problems” are easily noticeable at major amusement parks, ski resorts, and golf courses in South Korea. A restaurant at a ski resort in Gangwon Province charged 19,000 won for beef seaweed soup and 15,000 won for a children’s menu. A golf course in Gyeonggi Province sells abalone-added seaweed soup for 36,000 won and a bottle of cider for 7,000 won.
Jeju Island and Gangwon Province, South Korea’s leading tourist destinations, are also suffering from rip-off prices. In Jeju Island, a recent case that a restaurant served only 20 mackerel pieces for a 30,000 won menu became an issue in internet communities. Another similar case was reported in Sokcho, Gangwon Province. A customer bought two snow crabs for 250,000 won and he or she ended up finding out that red crabs cheaper than snow crabs were mixed with them.
“Price gouging” is one of the main factors that discourage foreign tourists from visiting South Korea. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Travel & Tourism Development Index 2022, South Korea ranked 15th in the overall assessment, but only 80th in price competitiveness. This is why officials in the tourism and retail sector say, “We are worried that the controversy over price gouging will not only pour cold water to the tourism industry but also cause national embarrassment.”
Jeju Island is also witnessing a reduction in the number of tourists, which is a side effect of price gouging. From January to October last year, the average expenditure per capita for a three-day, four-night trip to Jeju Island was 528,000 won, 1.6 times more expensive than the average domestic trip (339,000 won). As the perception that “if one can afford to go to Jeju, it is better off to go to Japan” spreads, the number of travelers to Jeju Island in January this year diminished to 976,888 (locals), less than half of the number of tourists from South Korea to Japan (1.98 million).
