Yahoo Finance People aren’t spending at duty-free stores like they used to
Duty-free retailers have bulked up their footprints in airports around the world—but they’re now struggling to get travelers to spend more money.
Sales of duty-free retail goods fell more than 2% last year from 2014, marking the first year-over-year decline since 2009, according to data recently published by the Tax Free World Association, a trade group.
The decline makes that pillar of airport commerce the latest corner of ailing brick-and-mortar retail to stumble.
Shoppers last year shelled out more than $62 billion on duty-free goods, which are imported but exempt from customs duties usually charged for bringing them across a border. While that was a decrease of just over 2% from the prior year, growth in duty-free and travel retail has slowed since 2011.
Last year’s drop wasn’t because consumers just soured on Toblerone chocolate bars, though confectionary and fine foods sales dropped 4%. They spent much less on watches and jewelry, with sales in that category tumbling more than 13.2% from 2014.
The organization chalked up the drop to economic and currency volatility as well as terrorism and geo-political issues.
There were a few bright spots. Fragrances and cosmetics sales rose more than 2% to $19.5 billion, for example. The trade group also pointed out a “much rosier” picture in Asia, citing an “impressive” 8.5% increase in tobacco sales.
Even though many duty-free shops have captive audiences with travelers waiting to board their flights, long security lines may not leave them with much time to browse.
Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief, our free daily newsletter with the world’s most important and interesting news.
More stories from Quartz:
