Japan discusses duty free on arrival and Downtown taxfree shopping.

As reported by the Trade Publication, The Travel Retail Business, Japan is now considering the introduction of arrivals duty free shopping (入国時免税店) in airports and Downtown Taxfree shopping (免税店 ダウンタウン).

Duty Free on arrival is common in Asia and Oceanea with many countries operating the practice of baggage hall shopping in their airports.

Whilst duty free on departure is available in all airports, arrivals shopping is a practice unheard of in Europe and North America. The Japanese are big spenders in the duty free market and the article suggests that the introduction of such shops will repatriate revenues whilst also affecting other retailers abroad, who could lose sales if the practice is legalised.

The Firm Duty Free Shoppers (DFS) is the largest retailer in the downtown duty free market and is especially well known to Japanese Travellers who visit these huge luxury emporiums in places such as Hawaii, Guam and Australia.

ダウンタウン、世界的な免税品。大規模 免税店 チェーンの DFSギャラリア ( DFS Galleria ) を運営し、 アジア 太平洋 地域を中心とする15ヶ国に150店舗を展開している。

入国時にも免税店で買い物を　国交省、税制改正要望

To check before you fly all other world destinations where you can buy your duty free on arrival, go to our search portal.

Australian Govt are pushing for ban on arrivals tobacco

According to leaked reports in Australia the government there is edging closer to a ban on all arrivals duty free tobacco. It is suggested that that the reasoning behind this ban will lead to increased government revenues through taxation and not for health reasons. An independent analysis by Deloitte Access Economics calculates the net tax gain to be in excess of A$17 million per annum although this does not take into account additional Customs enforcement costs.

This ban would have a deep affect of the Australian duty free industry as Australia's Arrivals Duty Free Shops would be covered by the ban.
 
This, however, has brought a strong response from the Australian Duty Free Association who feel the government have overstated the additional tax revenue it would achieve and not taken into consideration the damage this will cause to the duty free industry and loss of revenue to operators and airports.

There is no date set for the implementation of this ban.

Jericho Duty Free Shop planned

The Palestinian Authority is planning to open a duty-free shop in Jericho as President Mahmoud Abbas has approved the project. The project is subject to the Palestinian Authority cabinet approval but the profits will support the president's fund for students in refugee camps in Lebanon and underprivileged areas.

The duty free shop will be set up at the Palestinian Authority arrivals and departures hall at the Allenby Bridge crossing servicing over 1.7 million people per annum between the West Bank and Jordan. 

Most West Bank residents must travel via the Allenby Bridge to Amman's airport to travel internationally as there is no airport in the West Bank and Israel forbids most Palestinians from using Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. 

Initially the duty free shop will sell traditional products such as cigarettes, perfume and chocolate and then later electronic goods. 

The Changing Face of Travel Retailing

The Worldwide travel retail business is worth in excess of $30 USD billion and over two thirds of this is down to airport shopping. Nevertheless, as seen in the past it is more sensitive because of its susceptibility to crisis - SARS crisis and 09/11 are just two examples which hit the sector the hardest. The airport operators world wide are becoming more dependent upon the retail revenue as the emergence of budget airline operators suppress their revenues by moving out to new airports offering the best prices for them.

Over the last 10 years it has become a key feature of airports to showcase "walk-through concepts" - passengers are guided from the airport entrance to the airplane departure gate through a frenzy of retail sales activity (e.g. Duty Free Shop), a path of retail temptation. It is found that passengers are at their most relaxed after completing check-in, passport and security checks.

One of the growing trends now is the advent of the Arrivals Duty Free Shop - perfect locations for last second shopping on arrival or for travellers not wishing to carry duty free goods on a long journey. this gives the retailers an opportunity to showcase locally made products. However, the big drawback with arrivals duty free shops is that this entails changes in legislation to allow such an activity to take place - usually a long draw out process. Recent examples of new arrivals duty free can be found in Switzerland and numerous countries in South America.

The whole aim of these latest trends is to convert the "passenger" into a "shopper" - no easy feat since in excess of 70% of passengers do not shop, not really surprising as they are actually there to travel!. However, a well spoken about concept in the airport industry is the phrase "sense of place" in conceptualizing travel retailing. One of the foremost authorities on this is Robbie Gill of The Design Solution company who have designed airports throughout the world. He believes that this "sense of being" should and will play a major part in transforming passengers into shoppers via transforming their travel retail experience. Gill believes that bringing a "local flavour" into the equation will go a long way to achieving this and he cites the examples at Barbados' Grantley Adams International Airport, where the shops all have corrugated roofs reminiscent of chattel homes, and Minneapolis with sculptures of Snoopy and Canada geese in the terrazzo floors. Changi Airport in Singapore has its own very unique 'sense of place' through the remarkable range of gardens such as the Sunflower Garden, Orchid Garden, Cactus Garden and Butterfly Garden.

The Design Solution recently worked on The Irish Whiskey Collection Duty Free retail store at Dublin Airport's new Terminal 2. This is retail with a true 'sense of place', as it only promotes Irish Whiskeys to local and international travellers. The new concept and store design was created solely to boost Irish Whiskey sales within the airport's duty free store, boosting Irish Whiskey sales by over 30%.

It can be demonstrated that 'sense of place' is far more than bricks and mortar; it is of the locale, the commerce and the culture. It shows a more interesting passenger experience, and in today's tough operating climate where travellers have more choice of where to fly from than ever before, that cannot be underestimated.

The Duty Free Shopping Copa runneth over for travelling Brazilians.

Brazil is fast becoming the consumer product cash cow for major brand owners with an overheating demand for “produtos importados”, or branded consumer products, in our speak.

Brazil’s domestic retail prices for consumer goods are far higher than in Europe, The USA and neighbouring Paraguay or Bolivia, so “shopping tourism” is now a major business from Brazil. Duty Free Shopping Centres have become a high priority target for shopping tourists, especially for Fragrances, Beauty and Cosmetics products.

In an attempt to dampen exploding consumer demand and to protect local manufacturing, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff has recently introduced a range of protectionist import tariffs whilst disregarding the price of some locally produced products, which may already be up to 25% more expensive than branded imports.

The paradox is that Dilma’s protectionist policies are helping to drive up prices of all consumer products and this has precipitated an outbound Tax Free Shopping tourism boom. Their currency, the $Reais is also at its highest level for years against the Dollar, Pound and Euro, so not only are overseas products cheaper, but cheaper still with an estimated 20% overvalued currency. Take this equation into a Duty Free Store and Brazilians have become like the proverbial “kids in a sweetshop” when passing through border stores or airports.

Yahoo Brazil’s InfoMoney Report recently enlisted the advice from Braztoa (Brazil Association of Tour Operatos) Magda Nassar and Julio Serson of the Brazilian Hotel Operators Forum (FOHB) to suggest the best shopping locations for outbound tourists.

The USA came out as the top recommendation, especially during the department store liquidation sale periods according to Julio Serson. The Duty Free Special Territory Panama, where the price for electronics is the lowest in the Latin continent, came a close second. Add to that an expanding COPA Airlines network to Brazil with a large regional airline hub at Panama Tocumen airport and you have a recipe for Tax Free shopping success. Magda Nassar was quoted as saying “As a Tax Free shopping country, prices in Panama are super competitive”.

Nassar also mentioned some interesting travel shopping ideas not normally associated with Brazil, Cruises to Panama and shopping in Dubai and other Middle Eastern States such as Lebanon. With Emirates Airlines now flying from both Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo to The UAE, it is fascinating to note how the Brazilian spending tentacles are spreading further afield and how gold and jewellery savings were highlighted.

But there is caution in the air too. An excellent report by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor for Britain’s Daily Telegraph, highlights the risks and statistics quoting influential sources in his report ………

The Latin Tiger may have overtaken France, Italy, and Britain to become the world’s fifth largest economy on some measures but it has also been relegated to 126th place by the World Bank for 'ease of doing business', behind much of Africa. Cyclical warning signs are flashing amber across the board.

Knight Frank’s global survey shows that Brazil’s house prices rose 26pc last year, leading the world by far. The global average was 0.5pc. "Prices are crazy," said Eduardo Paes, Rio’s mayor. Even 'favelas' are frothy as developers close in. A good slum is worth a four-bedroom house in Arizona - if you can prove ownership.

Brazil’s economy ground to halt late last year. It has since rebounded, but may struggle to repeat the great leap forward of the Lula years given the headwinds of a super-strong real (20pc overvalued says Goldman Sachs). Labour productivity has not remotely kept pace with China or the Asian tigers, which is why industrial output has almost halved to 14.6pc of GDP, a level last seen before the great industrialization drive of the of late 1950s. The country is becoming 'post-industrial' before it is rich.

But, Brazilians are feeling rich already, especially now they travel abroad en masse and search the world for Duty Free bargains.

Britain - A World Class Destination

 

Foreign visitors to Great Britain last year spent a record £17.7bn, a figure that confirms Britain's place as a top world-class destination.

According to VisitBritain, the number of tourists coming to the UK for holiday purposes was also a record at just under 12 million. In 2011, 3.57 million visits were by North American residents - a five per cent increase on the figure for 2010.

"As we look back on a positive 2011 for both holiday visits and spending, we want to make sure we capitalise on these gains by helping boost jobs across the country and create a lasting tourism legacy for many years to come,” said Patricia Yates, strategy and communications director at VisitBritain.

'We are encouraged that...the number of visitors coming to Britain from North America has risen. This is significant as we earn very nearly twice as much from US visitors than we do from any other source market,' she added.

Bumper tourist year expected for Britain with Jubilee and Olympic Games

Britain’s rich history and heritage continue to be strong drivers in attracting visitors. Famous buildings and monuments, castles and stately homes, and churches / cathedrals are all well regarded and interest is reflected in visit numbers. Britain is seen as a world-class destination in terms of its built heritage.

Castles hosting live concerts, museums holding fashion shows, or river boat rides on the Thames are especially exciting for potential tourists.

For a traveler whether shopping online or visiting the top travel destinations throughout the great cities of the world such as London, you will find duty free shopping. If you want to know anything about arrivals duty free, or duty free shops on ferry boats, cruise ships, frontier crossing border stores and tax-free refund shopping, search your destination first.

Calls for Child-Free Flights!

 

According to a recent new poll carried out by JetCost on 1,666 adults nearly two thirds of the respondents claimed their biggest grudge inflight was "loud children" followed by poor food and lack of legroom. The poll then went onto to identify that 53% of respondents would be in favour of child-free flights.

Ongoing issue for airlines - children on flights

Other issues include reclining seating and also seat allocation but even historical surveys still point to the children issue on flights although there is no clear evidence of any airline adopting such a stance.

However, there may be a movement towards this as Malayasian Airlines new Kuala Lumpur - London A380 service will ban all children under 12 years old from its top deck in response to customer complaints about crying children. Kuala Lumpur airport is one of growing number of airports in the Far East offering duty free on arrival to its incoming passengers.

Air Passenger Duty (APD) - unfair tax or polluter has to pay?

Definition - "Air Passenger Duty (APD) is an excise duty which is charged on the carriage of passengers flying from a United Kingdom airport on an aircraft that has an authorised take-off weight of more than ten tonnes or more than twenty seats for passengers. The duty is not payable by inbound international passengers who are booked to continue their journey (to an international destination) within 24 hours of their scheduled time of arrival in the UK".

The amount charged depends upon the distance you will travel to your destination ranging from £12.00 on the shortest European destination to £85.00 for over 6,000 air miles. When introduced in 1994, APD was sold to the public as a variant of an environmental tax. But, unlike the EU Emissions Trading Scheme which incentives airlines to use their aircraft more fuel efficiently, APD is a flat rate tax per passenger that does nothing to help the environment. Even the UK Treasury has now admitted that it's primarily a revenue raiser.

However, the British Government has decided to increase this charge, despite them collecting £2.2 billion in revenues in 2011, to twice the level of inflation from April 2012 causing the whole of the travel and tourist industry to be in arms.




The new rates in their "band" format are punishing especially for families travelling - a family of four will pay £52.00 in tax to Spain, £260 to Florida and £368 to Australia (and that is for Economy Class).

With UK airport passengers numbers the same as 2004 it is becoming increasingly more difficult to attract tourists for duty free shopping. It is worth noting that 22 out of 27 EU countries have no similar tax so it no wonder that Italy attracts three times more Chinese tourists than the UK... and a similar story with Germany and France.

So, is this an unfair tax on UK holiday makers, UK tourism and UK businesses..... or a way tax the polluters?