In response to today’s news of Dixons Carphone closing its airport stores, following the axing of duty-free shopping, Paul Barnes, Chief Executive of the Association of International Retail says:

“Ending tax free shopping puts over £3 billion of international visitor spending at risk each year as high spending travellers divert their shopping to other international destinations, such as Paris or Milan. Retailers, already struggling from COVID-19, are having to factor in additional, unnecessary losses into their forward planning and being forced to make are making the job cuts and closures that we warned the Government about. It is time the government urgently looked again at its decision to end tax free shopping”.

For further comment, please contact Paul Barnes at paul@internationalretail.co.uk or on 07969111619.

Thank you,

Charlie McAllister

Association of International Retail