According to a survey conducted by m1nd-set and TRBusiness, the majority of international travellers to the US would prefer to shop outside of airports, across all core DF&TR categories. But perhaps it’s not as many as the industry might think.

 

According to the survey* – which was conducted exclusively for TRBusiness between 11-16 February 2015 – 35% of international travellers said they would prefer to buy perfumes or cosmetics from the airport [when travelling to a destination in North America].

 

Although that still means that the majority of travellers (65%) would prefer to shop elsewhere – downtown, high street, outlets or perhaps even a departure airport – over a third would choose to purchase perfume/cosmetics products in the airport.

 

This suggests that many of the travellers surveyed [1,501 who have travelled to the US during the last six months] are pre-planning their purchases.

 

As is perhaps unsurprising, perfumes and cosmetics ranked top of the categories, but liquor wasn’t far behind with 31% of travellers stating that they would prefer to buy at the airport rather than ‘elsewhere’.

 

Twenty seven per cent of international travellers to the US said that they would prefer to buy fine food and confectionery items at the airport and 25% said the same of tobacco. The motivation to buy accessories or fashion items at the airport over other shopping destinations on a trip to the US was relatively low at 11% and 5% respectively.

 

Interestingly, 58% of international travellers believed that shopping at US airports had made improvements inside this decade; 57% for dining. Inside the last five years these percentages dropped to 42% and 49% respectively.

 

Thirty six per cent of international travellers said that they believed it was possible to make savings when buying products at airports in the United States.

 

[*The m1nd-set/TRBusiness survey was conducted online among 1,501 international travellers who have travelled to the US during the last six months. It was carried out, exclusively for TRBusiness, between 11-16 February 2015].

 

For an in-depth breakdown of data from this survey, see the March issue of TRBusiness magazine to be published shortly.