"I love shopping in Milan." This is not the title of the new book by Sophie Kinsella, but actually what tourists say, who choose the Lombard capital as their first destination to spend at least 50 euros per day.
The annual research report by the tourist board, Risposte Turismo, shows that out of a sample of over 700 Italians of different ages, from all regions of Italy and from various professions, three out of ten Italians have made at least one trip motivated by shopping. For the latter, Milan is the most visited destination in the world (31%), in front of outlets in any location (20%) and Florence (16.5%).
If we talk about international shopping tourism, Milan is the second destination in the world (48%), behind New York (55%) and ahead of London (41%), Paris (31%) and Rome (18%).
Among those who have travelled at least once in their lives for shopping, 39% say they have done so to have more choice than their place of residence and 31% to take advantage of cheaper prices.
Among the products most frequently purchased by Italian tourists are clothing, with 82.9% of participants making clothing purchases, followed by footwear (51.3%) and typical food and wine products (43.7%).
The preferred places of purchase during shopping trips are city centre shops or shopping streets (76%), outlets (57%), shopping malls (47%) and city markets (42%).
As far as the weight of shopping on the total cost of travel is concerned, for almost half of Italians who have travelled at least once with this motivation, purchases ranged from 11% to 30% of the expenses incurred, while for 2 out of 10 participants, more than 50%. On average, 46% of this segment of the sample spent more than 50 euros per day. It should be noted that for a quarter of the sample the average daily spending on holiday shopping was over 100 euros (16% between 100 and 200 euros and 7% over 200 euros).
Here is the ranking of the world cities preferred by Italians for shopping:
1. Milan
2. Florence
3. London
4. Rome
5. New York
6. Paris
7. Barcelona
8. Venice
9. Madrid
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