Travelers are planning trips with a view of purchasing unique items they can’t find at home, such as French perfumes, Korean cosmetics or Swiss chocolates, a trend Expedia described as “Goods Getaways”. Here, Visa economist Mohamed Bardastani shares insights from the Visa Business and Economic Insights’ Global Travel Insight report, showing how banks and retailers can tap into this growing opportunity.
How is the “Goods Getaways” trend signaling a new shift in travel planning?
Bardastani: The travel and tourism industry is increasingly being shaped by the intersection of several technological and demographic factors. For example, Gen Z, a digitally native generation that has only ever lived in a world with smartphones, social media and high-speed internet, is also progressively accounting for a larger share of the global population and travelers. These shifts are redefining not only how people travel but also who travels and what motivates their journeys—with ‘goods getaways’ becoming a new and significant driver of travel planning.
Which markets did the Visa Business and Economic Insights team analyze in the report?
Bardastani: Based on an analysis of VisaNet transactional data, we looked at two examples of so-called “Goods Getaways” — travel involving viral Dubai Chocolates and Korean cosmetic and skincare products. In both instances, we found evidence of increased tourist spending on these unique products that are closely associated with the travel destination.
This suggests that the availability of specialty items in a specific locale is not a travel coincidence or an added bonus but rather may be emerging as one of key motivators of tourists’ destination choices and a novel, rising trend in global tourism.
What was particularly interesting about the distribution of Dubai Chocolate from a payments perspective?
Bardastani: The “Dubai Chocolate” took social media by storm in 2024, prompting a plethora of videos online of influencers unpacking and trying the gooey goodness. One clever way the makers of the original Dubai Chocolate marketed their product was by offering a limited amount exclusively on Deliveroo, a food delivery app, for only short windows of time: at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. This scarcity, coupled with social media savviness, contributed to the overwhelming demand.
The report looked at the distribution of transactions on Deliveroo before and after the popularity of Dubai Chocolate to track the evolution of spending. We limited the analysis to non-domestic bank cards to capture tourist spending. The distribution of transactions before Dubai Chocolate became viral followed the expected path with a couple of peaks — one occurring around lunch time at 1 p.m., and the other around dinner time at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. — before the number of transactions tapered off.
Interestingly, as the chocolate bar gained popularity, the distribution of transactions changed significantly. In fact, the distribution on Deliveroo was not what you’d typically expect for tourists’ food deliveries, with unusual peaks at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. — the windows at which the chocolate bars were sold — suggesting a significant share of the transactions at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. were for the purchase of the viral chocolate.
The top non-domestic spenders on Deliveroo at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. were cardholders from the U.K., the U.S., Kazakhstan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Interestingly, cardholders from Singapore, South Korea and Armenia, who aren't usually big spenders on that app in the U.A.E., also significantly increased their spending during the 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. windows.
