Spain high on the list for "Luxury Shopping Tourism"

9 July 2014

Spain ranks fifth in the European Union within the category of luxury shopping tourism, with a turnover of 5000 million euros and with key destinations such as Barcelona, Madrid, Marbella, Ibiza or Mallorca, according to a research study by Brain & Company, a specialized consulting group.

This information was published today in the “Tourism and shopping: good travel companions” forum, organized by Innova Tax Free Group and the Spanish Leading Brands. A breakdown of the data by number of tourists arriving in Spain, Russian are on the first spot with 39% over the number of purchases, followed by the Chinese (25%), Mexican (8%), North Americans (6%), Brazilian (5%). The list continues with visitors from Venezuela (4%), Argentina (4%), Morocco (3%), Switzerland (3%) and Colombia (3%).

The Communications and Tourism manager for Innova Tax Free Group informed to Efetur that the numbers change when the amount of spending these tourists do is analyzed. This company is one of the seven companies operating in this sector. Their aim is to transfer by return part of the taxes paid when buying products.

Chinese tourists lead the ranking, spending 1730€ per person, followed by tourists from Switzerland, while Russian tourists rank in seventh place, spending 343€ per tourist. However, the number of tourists from Russia that have arrived in Spain during the first four months of the year have shrunk by 6% due to the lack of strength of their currency against the euro, according to Baciero.

Spain received 60.6 million foreign visitors, according to data from the World Tourism Organization (WTO).