Gerry Murphy, CEO of Britain’s most famous luxury brand, has urged the British Prime Minister to reinstate tax-free shopping for tourists, which was abolished at the time of Brexit.
“A spectacular own goal” that had turned Great Britain into “the least attractive shopping destination in Europe,” explained Gerry Murphy.
In the land of soccer, has Gerry Murphy, president of Burberry, found the winning formula to convince his Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, to restore the duty-free system that is so popular with tourists?
The head of the venerable company took advantage of the Business Connect conference, which took place yesterday in London in the presence of 200 business leaders, to address Rishi Sunak. He too asked him to reverse this “somewhat perverse” decision “to remove VAT refunds for tourists” “by, I believe it was you as Chancellor,” “on the day we left the single market.”
Friction effect
Adding that “leaving the EU” had had “a significant friction effect on trade, which hopefully will not be eternal”, Gerry Murphy urged the Prime Minister to “look into this specific case” of duty-free, the abolition of which would harm both the luxury and travel industries.
Before pointing out this crucial issue for his sector, Gerry Murphy was careful to create an opening by emphasizing that it was “great to see that the Conservative government is clearly more business-friendly than some of its predecessors.”
Opening
Gerry Murphy is not the first business leader to urge the Prime Minister to reinstate duty-free shopping for tourists. Luxury brands, department stores, and tourism operators (hotels) have been making the same demand for many months. But so far, they have been unsuccessful.
This time, however, Rishi Sunak did not completely close the door. Admittedly, he defended the measure, which he said was justified by “good reasons.” But he also admitted that he would examine the data to “see whether things are going as we had planned or not.” “We take this very seriously, we are here to listen and engage,” he added. And luxury players are likely to continue to make their voices heard on the subject…
Walpole, the organization representing luxury players in Great Britain, hoped that by fall 2022, the reinstatement of tax-free shopping would generate at least £1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) in retail sales. The removal of duty-free shopping in London is encouraging tourists to prefer Paris and Madrid as shopping destinations. According to Walpole, these cities are also earning £5 million per week from wealthy British tourists, who are able to buy cheaper goods on the continent.
Read also > London wants to regain its appeal for tourists
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