Lotte World Tower sees record-high visitors in 2023

Lotte Property & Development Co. (Lotte P&D) announced on Wednesday that the total number of visitors to Lotte World Tower and Mall last year was 55 million which increased by about 23% year over year, marking a record-breaking annual visitor count.

Lotte World Mall opened in 2014, and Lotte World Tower followed in 2017. As of Jan. 22 this year, the cumulative number of visitors to Lotte World Tower and Mall is 377 million.

It's expected to surpass 400 million in the second half of this year if the current trend continues.

The day with the highest number of visitors last year was Christmas, with 330,000 people visiting in a single day. On Christmas Eve, the day before, 326,000 people visited. This marked the first instance of daily visitors exceeding 300,000.

Lotte P&D attributes this success to the effect of the Christmas Town event, with a 6,000-square-meter area set up in places like Grass Square during the Christmas season.

Pop-up stores also contributed to the increase in visitors. Lotte World Tower and Mall introduced more than 150 pop-up stores last year including the Dyson Style Lab and Jameson whiskey pop-up store, making it an industry-first initiative.

The attraction of popular food and beverage establishments targeting the younger generation, such as Knotted World, London Bagel Museum, and Blue Bottle Coffee, played a significant role.

In particular, the London Bagel Museum has gained popularity to the extent that visitors have to wait for more than two hours on weekends to be served, despite being open for more than five months.

Write to Ji-Yoon Yang at yang@hankyung.com