The vacationer report triggers VAT refunds on purchases from non-EU vacationers by 19% | Economy | EUROtoday

Shopping tourism continues to indicate energy in Spain, thanks largely to the tax benefits it has for vacationers from international locations exterior the European Union. The newest knowledge from the Tax Agency, to which this newspaper has had entry, reveal that each the variety of refunds to non-EU vacationers and the quantity of refunds for purchases made throughout their stays in Spain are at historic highs: in 2025 there have been 10.6 million refunds, which represented an annual improve of 19.1%, for an quantity of 529 million euros, 10.4% extra.

In reaching these historic highs is the explosion of Latin American tourism and the restoration, slower than initially anticipated, of Asian and Middle Eastern tourism, now enormously affected by the warfare in Iran. These three teams have a buying energy a lot greater than Spain’s conventional supply markets, such because the United Kingdom, Germany or France. If within the latter the common day by day expenditure per vacationer ranges between 100 and 200 euros, vacationers from different locations comparable to South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Argentina, Japan or India can exceed 300 or 400 euros per day. The common stays are additionally a lot greater because of the distance of their international locations from Spain, which ends up in a better spending capability.

Tourists who select Spain for his or her holidays and are available from international locations exterior the European Union can get better VAT (21%) on the purchases they make throughout their keep if they’re items for private consumption that they’ll transport of their baggage (they don’t rely, for instance, the meals or drinks they devour in the course of the journey). Since 2018, as well as, they don’t have to succeed in the minimal of 90 euros per transaction to use this tax reduction, which represents an necessary aggressive benefit in comparison with different international locations comparable to France or Italy. There, these tax advantages are solely activated from 100 and 70 euros per transaction, respectively. This tax benefit has been key to the truth that the return figures have virtually doubled since 2019, after they barely reached 6.2 million. And additionally in order that their quantity has elevated by 60% to 529 million euros.

In the case of Spain, the refund is made by a digital process known as DIVA (VAT Refunds for Traveler Purchases), managed by the Tax Agency and which could be accomplished, both on the counters arrange within the companies themselves or at airports when vacationers face their return to their international locations of origin. Ainara Andueza, normal director in Spain of Global Blue, the most important supervisor of returns for tax-free purchases, with a market share of 80% of transactions, believes that the decrease development in spending with respect to operations is because of the emergence of numerous operators exterior the standard mega-luxury ones. “Digitalization and technological advance have encouraged commerce to position itself as a benchmark within shopping tourism. The process has been democratized beyond the large luxury brands and other chains such as Inditex, Mango or Primark have entered with force, which has also helped the average receipt per purchase to be lower.”

Andueza provides that these massive worldwide firms think about VAT-exempt procuring tourism as a precedence line of enterprise. “They are interested in each percentage point that increases in the international buyer, they are interested in whether their average spending goes up or down, they are interested in seeing how they can better capture the large nationalities, he explains. The Global Blue spokesperson highlights that another of the changes that has caused the fall in average spending has been the emergence of the Argentine tourist as the one with the greatest growth in this area of business. This nationality has surpassed the Mexican, which had led the classification in recent years. “Argentine vacationers don’t purchase in the identical locations or the identical merchandise because the Mexicans and that has additionally pulled down common spending,” he emphasizes.

In any case, he clarifies that the US market continues to be a very powerful for all VAT-exempt purchases in Spain. With 14% of the whole, it will have closed final 12 months with a purchase order quantity of round 6,000 million euros, in accordance with knowledge managed by Global Blue. In second place is China, which is able to finish 10% of VAT refunds to vacationers, however has not but recovered the degrees previous to the covid pandemic.

The better dynamism of the American market, each within the United States and Latin America, in comparison with the paralysis of the Chinese market, is what has triggered Madrid to now account for nearly half of the spending linked to those purchases. Both supply markets have a robust weight amongst vacationers who go to the capital and its area. On the opposite hand, Barcelona has been penalized by its better dependence on the Asian market, primarily the Chinese one, which has not but recovered pre-pandemic ranges. “Its low market share in Latin American countries has also hurt it, but above all it has been affected by the metamorphosis of the Chinese traveler, who has changed the way they travel or the average stay and has learned to travel to other neighboring countries, such as Japan, which is very well positioned in luxury,” Andueza emphasizes.