"Expensive but Private Lessons" ... Department Store Culture Centers Regain Popularity

Recovery up to 70% of Students
Increase in Specialized and Small-Group Courses

[Asia Economy Reporters Jo In-kyung and Im Chun-han] Students are flocking again to department store cultural centers, which had temporarily closed due to COVID-19. Unlike before, the prices have increased, but the lecture content has become more specialized, and there are more courses targeting private lessons and small groups.

According to Lotte Department Store on the 27th, the number of cultural center students, which sharply declined due to COVID-19 last year, has recovered to about 70% of capacity. In the case of Lotte Department Store's cultural center, two-thirds of the spring semester courses were fully booked, and popular courses such as book talks and senior academies were filled within two days of registration opening.

Premium courses operated with a small number of students at a high price are even more popular. The 'Pierre Gagnaire Romantic French Dinner' and 'Hyeondamwon Grill Cooking Class,' each conducted with a capacity of 4 people, were fully booked immediately upon opening despite the high tuition fees of 180,000 KRW and 120,000 KRW per session, respectively. The waiting list also reached dozens of people. At Lotte Department Store Gangnam Branch cultural center, which has specialized Pilates rooms for 1-on-1 and 1-on-2 lessons, adult course sales have increased by nearly 50% compared to before the COVID-19 outbreak in 2019.

Hyundai Department Store launched an online cultural center called 'Hyundai Department Store Culture Class' on Naver's lecture platform 'Xpert' from the end of last year. Although it is an online lecture, classes are conducted through 1-on-1 chat or voice and video calls. The smartphone photography course costs 35,000 KRW for 40 minutes per session, and the calligraphy course is about 40,000 KRW for 30 minutes, but student satisfaction is high. Hyundai Department Store plans to increase the number of online courses to around 500 and expand the number of instructors from about 50 to 100 by the end of this year.

Shinsegae Department Store is currently operating cooking classes, which previously had a capacity of 16 people, with smaller groups of 6 to 8 students. Instead of tasting during class, food is packaged for students to take home and eat. For instrument lessons such as cello, violin, piano, and drums, class time has been reduced and changed to a private lesson format, which the cultural center says has received better responses from students. Accordingly, starting from the summer semester in June, the number of small group lectures such as 1-on-1 classes will be increased by 20% compared to last year.