Shopping tourism in Europe is revived by the arrival of tourists from Asia and America

24-09-23

Shopping tourism in Europe is recovering after three years at historic lows as a result of the coronavirus health crisis and the closure of long-haul air traffic. And a good example of this recovery is the positive evolution of taxfree sales, those made by non-EU tourists in Spain and which allow them to deduct VAT on them. 

The information compiled by the Swiss company Global Blue, one of the main operators of these sales transactions, shows that they have been exceeding pre-crisis levels for six months (from February to August) and in the year-to-date they are 21 points above the figures for 2019.

The first factor that has led to this upturn is the return of American and Asian tourism. Non-EU tourists reached 9.4 million in 2022, just 13.2% of the total, but spent 19.2 billion euros on their trips, 22% of the total. 

These figures have been repeated in the first seven months of the year, in which they have accounted for 15.7% of travellers and 23% of spending. The average daily and per-stay expenditure of these long-haul markets is infinitely higher than that of the major European issuers. 

Thus, the average daily expenditure of a German or British traveller is 145 and 154 euros, respectively, while the daily expenditure of a tourist from Korea, the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia is more than double that, with figures ranging between 300 and 400 euros. Other markets such as India, Mexico and Venezuela are below 300 euros per day.