Lotte Duty Free said Thursday that it is opening its expanded World Tower store Friday, connecting stores in its Avenuel and Lotte World Tower buildings.

The branch has been expanded to 17,334 square meters, making it the largest downtown duty-free store in Korea, the second largest in Asia and the third largest in the world.

It houses 420 brands, increased from the existing 320, focused on the latest trends preferred by Japanese and Chinese tourists.

The World Tower wing of the branch focused on expanding offerings of Korean products, including products from small and medium enterprises as well as regional specialty products. The space allotted to Korean cosmetics has also been expanded to help drive revenue, according to the company.

Lotte Duty Free said that it hopes to see synergy between the store and the tourist attraction of Lotte World Tower, which includes an observatory and a luxury hotel.

“There seems to be no resolution in sight for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense crisis, and the duty-free industry is facing increasing difficulties. I hope that the grand opening of the World Tower branch will be a breakthrough,” said Lotte Duty Free CEO Jang Sun-wook, referring to tensions between Korea and China that led to a sharp decrease in Chinese tourists to Korea.

Before the intergovernmental row over the installment of an American anti-missile system here, spending by Chinese tourists made up 70 percent of Lotte Duty Free‘s revenues.

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)