Chinese tourists left $130 million in Europe

Chinese tourists to Europe left behind 800 million yuan ($130.8m) in unclaimed tax refunds in 2012, according to a report from world’s largest tourist company.

The report issued by Global Blue estimates that at an average 10 percent average tax refund, Chinese consumers who toured Europe could have collected around 2.4 billion yuan ($392.4m) tax refunds last year. One-third of the reimbursements entitled from purchases in Europe were left behind by the world’s number one tourist group.

Zhan Yi, a manager of an outbound tourism company said being unaware of the application procedure and the language barrier may be two major reasons hindering Chinese visitors getting tax refunds.

Chinese tourists spent $102 billion (623.85 billion yuan) overseas last year, making China jump to the first place in outbound tourism consumption from the seventh place in 2002. From the total some $4.1 billion (24.4 billion yuan) was spent in Europe.