India to rank among biggest spenders for 2004

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Global Refund's latest survey suggests Indian travellers may bolster travel retailers' profits over the coming year, this year's Duty-Free & Travel-Retail Database & Directory reveals.

India is likely to surface as one of the highest-spending travelling nations in 2004, according to a survey by tax refund service provider Global Refund. In the first five months of 2004 Indians accounted for 2% of spending in downtown and airport stores, while their expenditure rose 43%. The most popular destinations for Indian travellers are Singapore, Malaysia and Dubai, where shopping is one of the main attractions.

Japanese, Americans and Russians remain the biggest-spending nationalities. In 2003, the three nationalities accounted for 13%, 11% and 10% of travel shopping expenditure respectively. However, Russians increased their spending by 9% in first five months of 2004, to rank second among the top spenders ahead of the Americans.

Last year's SARS outbreak meant that fewer Japanese travelled abroad, although outbound travel from Japan is now recovering. As a result the Japanese share of total spending has fallen, although Japanese spend per head is still among the highest. Spending by Indonesians rose by 68%, Saudi spend increased by 28% and Chinese travellers spent 24% more compared with the same period in 2003.

Women's fashion shops remain the most important category for travellers, accounting for 25% of spending last year despite a 5% drop in expenditure. Department stores took a 16% share of the market while watches and jewellery accounted for 14%.

The survey results will be the focus of a detailed analysis in the Duty-Free & Travel-Retail Database & Directory, due to be published by Raven Fox in September.