Global Refund Index May: Japanese spending dips sharply

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The table below shows travel shopping trends for the ten major nationalities in the countries of the Global Refund system-consisting of most EU countries, South Korea, Singapore and Argentina. Exclusive to travelretailworld.com.

The month of May in isolation turned out the weakest performance since the Index of travel shopping in the High Street sector began last year. This is particularly demonstrated by the results for the two top nations: Japanese spending fell by 10% compared to May 2000 and that of the US rose 21%, down from a peak of 85% growth last December. The Japanese trend can largely be attributed to the persistence of the yen's weak spending power, with the exchange rate down at Y121 to the dollar this month from Y105 in April. Japan's share of total travel-retail sales in the tax refund system dropped from 19% to 18%.

The main exceptions are the Hong Kong and mainland Chinese tourist markets which showed growth of 14% and 62% respectively. China was the only nationality to show an improving trend compared to previous months this year.