Global Blue says that the worldwide growth in tax free shopping was positive across Continental Europe and Asia Pacific (Photo: India Outbound)
Tax-free shopping around the world grew 23 pc in December 2024 as compared to the same period in the previous year, says a report by Global Blue, a leading tax-free shopping services company.
In a press statement, Global Blue says that the worldwide growth in tax free shopping was positive across Continental Europe and Asia Pacific as sales in store like-for-like and year-on-year performance increased by 20 pc in Continental Europe in December 2024, stronger than the growth experienced in November 2024, when it was 16 pc.
Global Blue says that the growth was led by a 22 pc increase in the number of shoppers and was slightly impacted by a reduction of 2 pc in the average spend per shopper.
The growth was led by a 22 pc increase in the number of shoppers
The statement adds that when examining origin markets, the tax-free spend by an average shopper from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country rose by a robust 41 pc as compared to the shopping by the same cohort the previous year. The GCC shoppers were followed by shoppers from the United States whose spends increased by 34 pc and the shoppers from non-EU European countries that rose by 26 pc and the spend by visitors from Mainland China was flat, with no growth or decline in their spending.
Global Blue says that in terms of destination markets, where the tax-free shopping took place in December, Italy topped with a 24 pc growth in shopping receipts, followed by Spain that grew at 22 pc and France at 19 pc. It adds that the growth stemmed partly from the softening of the Euro against all major currencies.
The statement adds that in Asia Pacific, tax-free shopping growth reached 29 pc in December 2024, closely in line with November 2024 when it had grown by 30 pc. Global Blue says that the growth registered in Asia Pacific was due to more number of tourists, which grew by 29 pc, while the average spend per shopper remained constant, with 0 pc change.
In Asia Pacific, Mainland Chinese visitors topped the list of shoppers with a 54 pc increase in total spend, which in turn was driven by 81 pc rise in the number of shoppers. Hong Kong and Taiwan shopper Tax Free Spend experienced a rise of 13 pc versus the previous year while North East Asia shopper Tax Free Spend declined by 19 pc as compared to the previous year.
Global Blue says that regarding destination markets, December showed a strong performance across destinations, with South Korea at topping at a 64 pc growth in tax-free shopping spend, followed by Japan where tax-free shopping rose by 32 pc and Singapore where shopping increased by 6 pc.