Chinese travellers spend big on duty-free goods. Courtesy of Corinne Wan

The Visa Travel Smart Survey, conducted among 2,226 travellers from across the Asia Pacific region on their travel spending habits, found Korean and Chinese travellers spent the biggest duty-free spenders on their last trip – an average expenditure of US$358 and US$333 respectively - US$100 more than the regional average.

Brian McGrory, Visa’s Regional Head, Debit Products, said, “Duty free shopping can offer great savings on international brands as well as products that are exclusive to duty free shoppers so it is no surprise that the Chinese and Koreans, renowned brand lovers in the region, are snapping up duty free bargains."

Reinforcing the appeal of duty free savings, 43 percent of all respondents said they shopped at a duty free store during their last overseas trip. Travellers from Japan (73 percent), Korea (71 percent) and China (49 percent) were the region’s most frequent duty free shoppers while Korean and Chinese travellers also made it to the biggest spender list.

Credit cards were the most popular form of payment for duty free purchases for Australians and New Zealanders (59 percent respectively), followed by the Koreans (56 percent) who are the region’s biggest spenders.

McGrory said: “Payment cards are accepted at duty free shops across the region and are a great way to help travellers overcome the problems of currency exchange during a cash transaction. With duty free shops located at airports and at downtown city centres, they are a great way for travellers to purchase gifts and save some money at the same time."

During their last trip abroad, leisure travellers said they picked up a higher average tab (US$219) at duty free shops compared with business travellers (US$179). When asked where they made their duty free purchases, leisure travellers said they did most of their duty free shopping at the airport (84 percent), while business travellers preferred downtown duty free shops (67 percent).

Younger travellers were the most likely to stretch their travel budget with duty free purchases – 47 percent of 18 to 29 year old travellers said they bought duty free on their last trip while 42 percent of 40 years and above said they made such purchases.

Top duty free spenders (Source: Visa Travel Smart Survey)
• Korea: US$358
• China: US$333
• Hong Kong: US$224
• Malaysia: US$195
• India: US$180
• Thailand: US$178
• Japan: US$164
• Australia: US$153
• Singapore: US$153
• New Zealand: US$134
• Taiwan: US$125
• Regional Average US$212

Note: Survey interviewed departing or arriving visitors/transit passengers (aged 18 years and above, trip length was at least 48 hours) at Singapore Changi Airport. A total of 2,226 respondents were interviewed from Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Fieldwork was conducted from 26 September to 15 November 2008