Airport shopping tricks that will work in almost any country



Shop to your heart’s content with these tips that will make your airport shopping experience super enjoyable:

1. See, Compare, Buy – Find the lowest Duty Free Price:

Most international airports provide free Wi-Fi, don’t they? Well, use that free Wi-Fi to your benefit. Even if they don’t most of us have smart phones with internet on them. So use technology to compare the duty prices before you decide buy at an airport.

For example you are traveling between Chennai and Dubai and want to buy a perfume. It will be to your advantage if you first see whether buying at Dubai makes more sense as compared to Chennai or not. This means which airport offers the better / lower price for the product your want to buy.


How do you do that? Well, visit DutyFree.buzz – Enter your arrival and departure airports, then select the product you wish to buy and viola! You have the best price for the product in front of you.

You now know whether to buy at Dubai or Chennai. Pretty neat isn’t it!

2. Make the Most of Tax Refunds:

This is probably the best thing about Airport Shopping and almost all countries use this as a bonanza to attract visitors – Tax free shopping.

When I say Tax free shopping, the first thing that pops to the mind is Duty Free shopping which is common to almost all international airports. But this is different. In addition to Duty free, some countries choose to be extra generous to their visitors. Make sure you take advantage of that.

Places such as Singapore and Australia allow overseas visitors to refund Goods and Services tax (GST). Australia also allows visitors to claim the wine equalization tax (WET). European Union has its own sweet way of charming you. 

Travelers that are non-European residents have to pay Value Added Taxes (VAT) on goods that they purchase at tax free shops outside EU airports. Travelers can claim a refund of this VAT paid.


Different countries have different tax free schemes that you may not be aware of, make sure you google those out before you start your shopping.

3. Keep within LIMITS:

Here comes the golden tip of International airport shopping – Know your limits. To put it in other words, know the Duty Free limits of the country you are travelling to.

Governments might offer you Duty Free Products but they will also have Duty Free allowances and limits. You should be well aware of these limits before you start your shopping or you might get into trouble later.

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