Tourists take to Korea's fresh-look, fast-delivery prescription glasses shops

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Tourists take to Korea's fresh-look, fast-delivery prescription glasses shops

Published: 04 Dec. 2025, 07:00 Updated: 04 Dec. 2025, 13:50

LEE JIAN
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Foriegners shop eyewear at the Daegu International Optical Show in June 2017. [NEWS1]

Kylie DeLonge, a tourist from Australia, had been overdue for new prescription glasses — but she decided to wait a few weeks until her trip to Seoul.

“I’d seen posts about how fast and affordable it could be to get them in Korea,” she told the Korea JoongAng Daily via messages.

When she landed in March, DeLonge headed to an optical shop in Myeongdong, the city's shopping district, where an optician did a quick free eye exam to get her prescription, and she chose a pair of frames. She then wandered off nearby to get a caricature drawn with her friend.

By the time the caricature was finished, so were her glasses — ready for pickup in just 20 minutes. Back home, the same process would likely have taken her at least a week.

Prices can vary, depending on the lens and frame, but a pair can typically be purchased at around 100,000 won ($65).

Optical shops are clustered around the Namdaemun Market in Jung District, central Seoul. [LEE JIAN]

The unique convenience of Korean optical shops is hardly a secret anymore to well-researched tourists seeking authenticity in travel. According to local tourism platform Creatrip, which connects travelers in Korea with optical retailers, transaction volumes for glasses shops booked through its service surged 1,608 percent from June to October compared to the previous five months. Customers came from across the globe, with Americans accounting for about 49 percent of bookings, followed by Taiwanese and Germans.

Park Soon-ok, who runs a 50-year-old Namdaemun optical shop with her husband, a licensed optician, testified that about half their customers are international. “They are from all over the world, some young, some old," she told the outlet. "At first, we were very surprised that our shops appealed to people from so far away […] It makes me very proud to be doing this work.”

Women in the 1980s are picking glasses at an optical shop in Jung District, central Seoul.[JOONGANG ILBO]

The speedy optical system under the international spotlight didn’t emerge overnight. It was built over decades — shaped by some of the world’s highest rates of myopia, constant domestic demand and a once-dominant eyewear manufacturing industry.

The foundation also serves as a springboard for local eyewear fashion labels that are achieving record sales abroad.

Gentle Monster, best known for its edgy eyewear designs, operates 65 stores in 12 countries as of July, most recently opening in Milan, Italy. Blue Elephant, a similar yet slightly more affordable label, opened its second flagship store in Japan this month and plans to open another in Los Angeles next year.

As the brands ride a wave of popularity outside of Korea, foreigners are drawn to the place where it all began, getting a taste of everyday life in Korea, said Hanyang University tourism professor Lee Hoon. “Getting custom glasses used to be something only a handful of knowledgeable travelers knew about. But travel know-how spreads fast now through social media, and many tourists have come to see Korean optical shops as a must-do experience.”

A promotional image for Gentle Monster, featuring K-pop girl group Blackpink's Jennie sporting its eyewear [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Koreans’ affinity for glasses

A liscensed optician conducts an eye exam on a customer [JOONGANG ILBO]

What can feel like luxury to travelers is simply part of everyday life for Koreans, where poor eyesight is so common that optical shops are practically a neighborhood staple.

Earlier this year, eyewear stores topped the list of businesses where Koreans redeemed the first round of government-issued consumer coupons. According to Korea Credit Data, sales at optical shops surged 56.8 percent in the first week — the sharpest spike among all sectors, underscoring how essential glasses are to daily life.

One reason is that East Asia has the highest rate of myopia in the world. The 2019 Global Vision Report by the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that more than half of the region’s population is nearsighted, surpassing 53 percent in Korea, Japan and China. Among young Koreans, that figure is even more extreme: WHO data suggests up to 97 percent of adolescents in major Korean cities are nearsighted.

The Korean government’s own figures mirror that trajectory. The Ministry of Education reported that in 2024, 30.8 percent of first-grade elementary students had vision problems — a share that soared to 74.8 percent by the first year of high school.

That relentless demand helped shape a uniquely efficient retail ecosystem — one built on a regulatory shift in 1989, when Korea introduced a national optician licensing system. Unlike in many other countries, where optometrists conduct eye exams and opticians simply make and dispense glasses, licensed opticians in Korea are allowed to carry out both roles.

The proposal initially drew fierce opposition from ophthalmologists, who argued that allowing opticians to perform exams such as the automated refraction eye test without a doctor’s prescription would be unsafe. But a Constitutional Court ruling dismissed the claim, affirming that opticians could test vision and sell prescription eyewear to anyone age six and older.

The decision streamlined the process for customers who can now walk out of an optical store within half an hour with new prescription glasses.

“Special lenses can take up to two days, but for travelers, we do everything we can to make the glasses as fast as possible,” optical shop owner Parks said. Speed, she added, is everything: “In this business, the shop that finishes fastest wins.”

Equipment to make the lens are at an optical store in Jung District, central Seoul, on Nov. 28. [LEE JIAN]

Shadows behind the boom

Glasses are displayed at an optical shop in Jung District, central Seoul, on Nov. 28. [LEE JIAN]

Decades ago, Korea’s eyewear was more recognizable for production instead of retail.

From the 1960s through the mid-1990s, Korean eyewear exports soared from $31,000 in 1964 to $250 million in 1995, according to the Korea Optical Industry Agency. But as lower-cost manufacturing surged in China, Vietnam and India, the country’s industrial footprint has declined sharply. According to the Korea International Trade Association, Korea’s exports of eyeglass lenses fell by 32 percent in three years, from $53.76 million in 2021 to $36.66 million last year. Over the same period, imports of Chinese eyeglass lenses increased by 11 percent — from $39.95 million to $44.50 million.

But some licensed opticians are restoring that reputation by combining technology with renewed investment in Korean manufacturing.

Brism, an optical brand run by a licensed optician, offers 3-D-scanned and printed custom frames, manufactured in Korea. Its revenue grew from 4.5 billion won ($3 million) in 2021 to 10.8 billion won last year.

Uncommon Eyewear — an optical store chain led by two licensed opticians — takes a design-forward approach while reshoring production. Initially reliant on Chinese OEM factories, the brand now handles manufacturing, distribution and design entirely in-house.

“Just because something is made in China doesn’t mean it’s low quality — there are factories there that can produce at a very high standard,” an Uncommon Eyewear spokesperson said. “But consumers often wonder why prices differ so much if everything is made in the same place, and that’s a hard perception barrier to overcome. Meanwhile, trust in Korean brands has continued to rise. We believed that making our products in Korea would build even stronger credibility.

“The shift wasn’t easy — much of Korea’s eyewear manufacturing base had eroded over time — so in the end we decided to build our own production capacity. It was a major investment, but with a rich manufacturing background of the industry here, we are confident that a ‘Korean brand made in Korea’ can create greater long-term value.”

BY LEE JIAN [[email protected]]