Lotte Duty Free has submitted a bid to renew its licence to run a store in Seoul, which is set to expire at the end of the year.

It applied to the Seoul customs office, as it has been doing since 2010, to continue its outlet at the Convention and Exhibition Center (Coex) in the affluent Gangnam district in the south of the capital.

The licence would be valid for five years, and industry insiders say no other retailers submitted bids, reports The Korea Herald.

Two other duty-free shops, run by Hyundai Department Store and Shinsegae, are set to open in the coming years.

Meanwhile, there are hopes group tours from China will return to South Korea. The Chinese government has banned travel agencies from selling Korea-bound tours since mid-March in an apparent retaliation over Seoul’s deployment of an US missile defence system.

Beijing and Seoul have said they will make efforts to put their relations back on track.