France still biggest tax free shopping destination

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Nov 2, 2015

Chinese shoppers have helped France to once again become the number one tax free shopping destination.

New figures from Global Blue reveal that in September 2015, France had a 20% global share of Tax Free Shopping (TFS), which rose 92% year-on-year in France. The sales were predominantly to Chinese tourists.

Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar are the four biggest-spending Middle East nationalities and, after the Chinese, represent the second largest group for TFS spend share, with 15% for September. The third and fourth largest spending groups are the Russians and Americans, with the latter consistently appearing in fourth place.

Though the UK still represents 15% of total TFS sales, growth was virtually flat at +1% YoY in the month, due to more favourable exchange rates in the Eurozone. The Milan Expo helped raise Milan's TFS by 12%.

Singapore remains in negative growth with -3% YoY for TFS sales. This is due to Chinese shoppers choosing to travel further afield for shopping trips.