Updated November 6, 2026 · from official open data
A short list of the official ways visitors save money in Korea. We link to the organisers rather than hosting coupons ourselves —
coupons and terms change with every edition.
Korea Grand Sale (coupons for foreign visitors)
Korea’s biggest shopping-and-tourism festival for foreign visitors runs every winter, with discount coupons from airlines, hotels, shops,
beauty brands and attractions. The next edition is announced for December 23, 2026 – February 13, 2027. Coupons are handed out through the
official platform and, in recent editions, as a coupon book at the Myeongdong Welcome Center.
Collected automatically from English-language Korean news every day; the details are in each article.
Instant tax refund when you shop
At stores showing a tax-refund logo (for example Global Blue, Global Tax Free or Easy Tax Refund) you can get the VAT back at the till by showing
your passport. Instant refunds have per-receipt and per-trip limits (widely reported as ₩1,000,000 per receipt and ₩5,000,000 per trip);
above that you claim at the airport. Ask the store, as limits and minimum purchases are set by the refund operators and can change.
Free entry: palaces and museums
163 of the 1,320 places we track list free admission, 41 of them in Seoul — including several national museums.
Palaces have offered free entry to visitors wearing hanbok and on some holidays; see our palace guide
and the Korea Heritage Service for current rules.