Greece is among the 15 top world destinations regarding Tax Free stores purchases in September 2015, with annual growth amounting to 33% compared to the same month of 2014, according to the company Premier Tax Free.
In September, most countries – except Russia – recorded an increase in tax free purchase expenditure, compared with last year. In particular, the Chinese emerged as the most important buyers, with purchases development at around 14% and 28% of the total tax free purchases expenditure.
Strong dollar vs euro
United States buyers are now spending more than Russians, having increased their consumption by 17% in September. Let it also be noted that the strong dollar against the euro strengthens US sales that have grown by 15% since last year.
Data indicate that tourist nationalities who in September 2015 showed the highest growth rate on an annual basis, were Kuwaitis (24%), Indians (22%), South Koreans (19%), Taiwanese (+ 18%) and Americans (17%), the latter perhaps encouraged by the stronger dollar against the euro. At the same time, a dip of -42% was recorded this September for tax free purchases by Russians.
Chinese “lion share”
Quite characteristically, Chinese tourists retained their share of the global tax free shops markets collaborating with Premier Tax Free, accounting for 28% of the total sales. Americans, Russians and Kuwaitis lagged far behind.
In particular, the top five nationalities that conducted most tax free purchases in Greece, were the Chinese (market share 26%, average cost of purchasing 492 euros up by 217% from last year), the Russians (market share 21% with an average expenditure of 734 euro), Americans (with a share of 7% and average expenditure of 884 euros), the Skopjans (with a share of 6%) and Serbs with a share of 5%.
