Global Blue, one of the world’s leaders in tax refund services, published its quarterly “Globe Shopper Spending Insights in Lebanon” report, bearing in mind that figures were adjusted to reflect the devaluation of the pound. The report conveys a 31% annual decrease in the value of tax-free spending in Lebanon during the first nine months of 2022 on the back of the contraction in tax-free spending by Egyptian (-52%), Syrian (-42%) and UAE (-31%) tourists outweighing the increase in tax-free spending by Kuwaiti (14%) and Saudi (8%) visitors. From another standpoint, the number of tax-free transactions increased by 5% YTD September 2022, as the number of spending transactions by visiting tourists from major Arab countries saw a significant rise. In figures, the number of tax-free transactions by tourists from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Qatar and UAE saw sharp improvements of 70%, 54%, 45%, 35%, and 35% respectively in the first nine months of the year.

The lion’s share of tax-free spending goes to UAE (14%) tourists, followed by Syrian (11%), Egyptian (9%), Saudi (8%), Qatari (4%), and Kuwaiti (3%) visitors, as sketched in the chart below:

Category-wise, “Fashion & Clothing” articles accounted for 71% of total tourist spending during the first nine months of 2022, trailed, and by far, by “Watches & Jewelry” items (22%), “Department Stores” (3%), “Home & Garden” appliances (1%), and “Sports Equipment & Clothing” (1%). As far as the geographical distribution of spending is concerned, Beirut, which hosts most pertinent shopping malls and brands, amassed 85% of total tax-free spending, followed by the Metn (13%), Baabda & Aley (1%) and Kesserwan & Jbeil (1%) regions.