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 19% annual decrease in the value of tax-free spending in Lebanon during the year 2022 on the back of the contraction in tax-free spending by Egyptian (-44%), Syrian (-38%), Qatari (-17%) and UAE (-16%) tourists outweighing the increase in tax-free spending by Saudi (19%) and Kuwaiti (6%) visitors. From another standpoint, the number of tax-free transactions inched upwards by 0.5% in 2022 as the number of spending transactions by visiting tourists from major Arab countries saw a staggering increase. In figures, the number of tax-free transactions by tourists from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE and Syria saw sharp improvements of 56%, 45%, 34%, 32%, and 19% respectively in the year 2022.

The lion’s share of tax-free spending goes to UAE (17%) tourists, followed by Saudi (6%), Kuwaiti (6%), Syrian (5%), Qatari (5%), and Egyptian (4%) visitors, as sketched in the chart below:

Category-wise, “Fashion & Clothing” articles accounted for 69% of total tourist spending during the year 2022, trailed, and by far, by “Watches & Jewelry” items (23%), “Department Stores” (3%), “Home & Garden” appliances (2%), 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 83% of total tax-free spending, followed by the Metn (16%), and Baabda & Aley (1%) regions.