Among travellers from the four leading nations for duty free and travel retail spending in South America, more than half say that they are cutting back.

A survey by duty free and travel retail analyst, CiR, of 4,000 online respondents from Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia – conducted between December 2015 and January 2016 – shows that in every nationality, individuals are curbing their DF&TR budget in order to divert more funds to their holidays.

The findings show that among the four nations, 59% of Colombians, 57% of Argentinians, 55% of Brazilians and 53% of Chileans were planning to spend less. All the respondents had travelled in the past six months and had visited a duty free store in a major airport in the South America region.

The report also states that Brazilians, who despite the falling value of the Brazilian real [in the past 12 months it was down by -29.6% against the US dollar], remain the main shopping group in the region.

However, the Brazilian economy is set to contract by a large -3.5% this year according to the International Monetary Fund which will, in turn, drag down the whole region of Latin America and the Caribbean into negative territory at -0.3%.

CiR notes that even though Brazilians have reduced purchasing power, DF&TR is expanding in advance of the 2016 Olympics. The research group says: “Despite ongoing economic challenges faced by Brazil and Argentina, renovation and expansion of duty free stores are being seen across the whole region.”

SAVVY PRICE CHECKERS

Brazilians are the savviest in terms of online price planning. When it came to checking DF&TR prices online before their last trip 56% of Brazilians did so, compared to 46% of Argentinians, 37% of Colombians, and 32% of Chileans.

In airport retail, Brazilians are also the top nation for their magnet attraction to gifts with purchase, sampling products and for noticing travel retail exclusives – well ahead of other Latin American nations.

Elsewhere in the survey, CiR notes that Chile was among the leading growth markets for DF&TR in Latin America in 2015, while Colombians – whose economy has performed strongly – are continuing to show high demand for travel and shopping in DF&TR.

The survey finding are available in separate country reports which also investigate buyer and non-buyer behaviour in each of the core duty free categories in both arrivals and departures duty free stores, as well as a range of other factors. For further details click here.