Fashion tourism is a niche form of tourism associated with creative tourism, cultural tourism and shopping tourism. It includes travel motivated by fashion-related activities such as shopping, fashion events and visits to destinations associated with the fashion industry.
Cities may use fashion as part of broader tourism and economic-development strategies. Fashion tourism has been promoted in cities including Antwerp, London, and Tokyo, while fashion weeks and related events are also used in destination marketing and efforts to attract visitors.
City strategies and destination marketing Cities including London and New York have incorporated fashion into tourism and economic-development strategies through public agencies and promotional initiatives. Other cities have adopted similar approaches. Seoul hosts Seoul Fashion Week at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, while the surrounding Dongdaemun district contains a large concentration of retail and wholesale fashion businesses.
Lagos has also been examined as a case study in fashion-tourism research. A 2013 thesis by Olubukola Bada examined the relationship between fashion and tourism in Lagos, using Lagos Fashion and Design week as a case study, and considered the potential contribution of fashion tourism to the city's tourism sector.
Forms of fashion tourism Fashion tourism can extend beyond retail shopping to include visits to fashion heritage destinations and participation in fashion-related events and destination experiences. Academic research examined fashion heritage sites as tourism destinations, as well as events built around fashion collaborations and limited-release products as part of destination experiences.
Shopping and destination choice Shopping can be a significant motivation for travel and may form part of a visitor's engagement with local products, crafts and retail culture. Some destinations have developed tourism activities specifically around shopping.Conciergeetcetera.com, Fashion Tourism – The Ultimate Epicure of Travel, June 26, 2013Culture, shopping, Tourism Fashion-related retail destinations can also attract international visitors. Bicester Village in Oxfordshire receives millions of visitors annually and is particularly popular with Chinese tourists. Tourism organizations have also promoted individual fashion brands as part of destination marketing; VisitBritain has cited Burberry as a brand with particular appeal to Chinese visitors to the United Kingdom.
International shopping patterns Shopping participation varies among international visitors. According to data from the U.S. Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, shopping was among the most common activities reported by visitors from several Asian and European markets. The cited figures included participation rates of 90% among Asian visitors, 86% among Western European visitors and 85% among Eastern European visitors, with particularly high rates reported for visitors from Taiwan, Japan and Ireland.
Price differences and luxury shopping Price differences, exchange rates and purchasing power can influence shopping-related travel. Consumers may choose destinations partly according to the relative cost of fashion and luxury goods. A 2012 study of Europe's high-end industries estimated that tourists accounted for up to 50% of personal luxury-goods sales in Europe. International visitors account for a substantial share of luxury-goods purchases in Western Europe and of global luxury sales more broadly. An HSBC report on Chinese luxury consumption likewise identified price differences between markets as an important factor in overseas purchases.
Shopping tourism is not limited to luxury goods. Price differences have also encouraged Brazilian visitors to travel to the United States for shopping. In Miami, Brazilian tourism has been associated with substantial retail spending, with visitors citing significantly lower prices than Brazil.
Research and literature In 2023 Kogan Page published Leading Travel and Tourism Retail, which examines travel retail, including fashion tourism and shopping travel in the post-COVID period. Later that year, Emerald Publishing published Fashion and Tourism: Parallel Stories, an edited volume by Maria Gravari-Barbas and Nadzeya Sabatini. The book contains 15 chapters examining the relationship between fashion and tourism.
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