Duty-free shopping expenditure continued to grow worldwide in 2014 and Chinese shoppers were the biggest spenders for the seventh year in a row, accounting for a third of the global duty-free spending with 18% more consumption than the previous year, according to international duty free service Global Blue data.
Travelers from Russia, the USA, Indonesia and Japan were after China in the national duty-free consumption ranking.
Although duty-free spending by Russian travelers plummeted by about 17% due to declining value of the Russian Ruble, they still contributed 14% of total spending worldwide.
The top five destinations for duty-free spending were Paris, London, Singapore, Milan and Rome, and consumers from China, US and Japan favored Paris while Russian shoppers preferred Milan, according to Global Blue’s statistics.
The most popular purchases for global shoppers were high fashion products, followed by timepieces and jewelry. (Translation by David)
