Travel Retail in the Luxury Brands Field

Travel Retail: A Sixth Continent With 1 Billion Consumers

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Burberry’s Regent Street flagship, London

1.087 billion people travelled internationally in 2013, spending $1159 billion, prompting luxury brand executives to name travel retail as the ‘sixth continent’

1.087 billion people travelled internationally in 2013, equivalent to approximately 15% of the global population (7.71 billion in 2013, according to the United States Census Bureau). These tourists contributed an estimated $1159 billion to various local economies, purchasing accommodation, food and drink, local transport, entertainment and shopping in destination countries (UNWTO).

Europe remained the most popular region for global tourism in 2013, attracting over 52% of all international tourists. The most visited country in the world during this period was France, with over 83 million international arrivals, followed by the United States (69.8 million), Spain (60.7 million), China (55.7 million) and Italy (47.4 million).

Visitors to the United States spent the most, contributing a whopping $139.6 billion to the local economy. Followed by Spain ($60.4 billion) – the country with the most favourable VAT tax rebate within Europe – with France ($56.1 billion), China ($51.7 billion) and Macau ($51.6 billion) rounding out the top five biggest recipients of tourist spend.

The Chinese were the biggest spending nationality, collectively spending $128.6 billion abroad in 2013. Chinese international tourism spending has increased almost tenfold in the 13 years since 2000, when it ranked only 7th. In 2013 the gap in expenditure between China and second and third largest spenders – the United States and Germany – widened to over US$42 billion.

“ Tourists contributed an estimated $1159 billion to various local economies ”

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