Foreign travelers’ total purchases at South Korean duty-free stores hit a new record high last month, industry data showed Tuesday. 

According to the data tallied by the Korea Duty Free Shops Association, foreign visitors spent a total of $939 million at local duty-free stores in December, up 28 percent on-year. The figure is up 0.1 percent from the previous high of $983 million, set in November.

However, the number of foreigners who visited the shops fell on-year by 11.3 percent to 1.42 million in December.

Industry insiders said the fall was attributable to Beijing’s ban on Chinese tour groups from visiting Korea -- an apparent act of economic retaliation over the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery in Korea. 

In October, the two countries agreed to normalize their bilateral ties after months of dispute, but the Chinese tourists still show no sign of returning. 

According to data from Korea Customs Service, a total of 3.83 million Chinese nationals visited Korea from January to November last year, down by 49.1 percent on-year. 

Chinese nationals accounted for nearly half of the 17 million foreigners who visited South Korea in 2016. 

Industry experts said the latest increase in duty-free sales was mainly due to small-scale Chinese retailers, but such trend may not last long and will give negative impact to duty-free market in a long-term. 

The total sales at 46 local duty-free stores recorded an all-time high of 14.5 trillion won last year, up 17.9 percent from the previous year, according to the government data.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)