$1,800 shopping bill for Saudi visitors to UK

CAPITAL GAINS: London is the top UK destination for Saudis when it comes to shopping. (Getty Images)

The average Saudi spent $1,800 on shopping alone during a two-week stay in the UK in 2007, latest figures reveal.

Visitors from GCC countries spent more than $1.4 billion on shopping in Britain with Saudi travellers topping the list.

The Saudi spending figures did not include other expenses such as hotel accommodation and food, said Alana Ngoh, a spokesman for the Visit Britain campaign in the Middle East.

Ngoh told the Saudi Gazette on Wednesday that the UK was one of the top shopping destinations for GCC travellers, with around 84,000 people from Saudi Arabia visiting the country in 2007, quoting statistics from International Passenger Survey (IPS), a UK-based survey agency.

According to IPS, the average stay for a Saudi visitor in Britain last year was 18 days.

The most preferred destination for Saudi visitors in Britain was London.

Print | Email | Discuss this article

| Share |

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM