The global duty-free market in 2015 is expected to reach US$59.8 billion, more than twice as much as it was 10 years ago according to BCG. The rise of low-cost carriers (LCC) has boosted overseas travel and increasing number of Chinese tourists has driven the rapid expansion of the Asian as well as the global market.
Over 100 million Chinese passengers traveled abroad last year and reached expenditure of US$165 billion, ranking first in the world and US$50 billion more than the United States according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
The total number of China’s tourists is estimated to exceed 4.1 billion person trips in 2015 and about 53.6% of Chinese outbound tourists take shopping as primary objectives of free and easy trips in 2015 according to research of Mafengwo and TouTiao.
King Power who is the largest duty-free groups in Thailand launched the duty-free shop project with Tmall this July. They plan to open sales outlets and call centers in China, hoping to attract more Chinese tourists in the future according to Japan Economic News. Over 90% of their customers are Chinese and a majority of their retailers can speak Chinese for better consumer experience.
Lotte (South Korea), EVERRICH (Taiwan), and King Power (Thailand) are the only three Asian duty-free shops among the world top 10.
Also read: China Retail V.S. Online Shopping 2015