Can I buy Duty Free in.......?

Some of the most common questions from international travellers are "Can I buy Duty Free in?" and "What am I allowed to take?".

These questions are valid since buying and transporting duty free goods around the world is not so straight forward. For instance take in to account the following issues...

• Alcohol - there are many Muslim countries that do not allow alcohol importation (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait) - some allow under strict circumstances (Qatar allows from licensed premises only and for foreigners with a licence). There are other countries such as Turkey which allow alcohol.
• Tobacco - while there is no prohibition on tobacco in any country there are increasing restrictions on what can be imported and the also the increasing amount of taxation imposed on the domestic market. This increase in tax has fuelled grey market trade and smuggling.
• Electrical Goods - with small margins, ever changing model updates and very competitive domestic markets it is not so clear where the best prices lie.

Two areas which will move to the forefront in the future will be Duty Free Arrival Shops and also online retailing by duty free operators. This will reduce duty free goods being transported all around the world and duty free operators aligning their prices more towards savings against domestic market prices.

Olympic London awaits the Tax Free Shopping boom

With the Easter holiday getaway starting this week and the Olympic Games coming to London this summer, Britain’s airports and Tax Free Shopping Centres are hopeful that this will bring a huge surge in retail sales. But, as always during big events and holiday periods, there is always a potential hurdle to overcome first.

This year, London’s Stansted airport is preparing for a baggage handlers strike over the Easter break, but as this airport handles many low cost flights travellers are getting used to taking carry-on cabin luggage only with them. This should help to avoid part of the problem.

Meanwhile, Europe’s largest low-cost carrier Ryanair, the airline who helped to precipitate the luggage change by encouraging flyers to carry their baggage on board rather than check it in, seem locked in a perennial battle with the EU transport administrators.

Whilst Michael O’Leary, the forceful CEO of Ryanair, wants more carry-on baggage, the EU Transport Department is pushing through with measures to curb the commercial wings of airlines. Issues such as airline credit card charges and compensation are on the EU Motion, but the largest issue to be discussed is the restrictions imposed by some budget carriers imposed on their passengers with a rule known as “the one bag rule”. Airports in Europe claim this baggage rule is hurting their airport retail sales, whereas some airlines seem to disagree.

As the baggage battle rumbles on, both parties seem to have forgotten that Duty Free shopping was abolished in The European Union over 10 years ago and hence goods can be purchased on arrival as well as on departure from airports.

Duty Free shopping on arrival is well known in Latin America , Oceania and SE Asia, but is unheard-of as yet in Europe or North America. Now, travellers can discover where they can buy duty free in the baggage hall and avoid the baggage and security issues by checking the global search site for duty free and tax free shopping.

Tax Refund retailers have it much easier as all tourists to London’s famous shopping centres need to do is purchase their goods in mainstream shops and then use one of the many tax refund firms to recover and re-pay the VAT sales tax to them. All the rules related to tax-refund shopping can also be found at the world search for duty free shopping.