Duty free??

Question

On a cruise, what does duty free - mean?

Answer 1

a duty free is somewhere where you can buy souvenirs

Answer 2

The shops on cruise ships have SOME products that are tax and duty free. That depends on the ports the ship will dock, sometimes the products are duty paid and also selected products.

The products which are indeed tax and duty free in cases in which the countries legislations allow are: Cigarettes and Alcohol and Tobacco.

Basically thats it.

The other products, contrary to general belief are not duty free, no even perfumes and cosmetics. They are much better priced than on land only due to the fact that the 2 major gift shop concessions that run the shops on 90% of all ships, Starboard International (a part of the Moet Chandon/Henessy/Louis Vuitton group) and Harding Brothers Duty Free, are massive bulk buyers so they have good prices. The same goes for watches.  Also they study their market very well and have usually products that are good priced for the particular audience.

All the other stuff sold on board are just trash with HUGE mark ups. All made in China, lowest quality possible.

The  companies, Starboard and Hardings, pay a % of what they make to the cruise lines, usually between 30 and 35% as rent.

The two most profitable seasons Ive worked were Baltic, with departure port being the UK (Southampton, Harwich, Newcastle, Dover... ) on those cruises, which lasted 14 days we didnt do much for the first 12, the last 2 were the only ones we could sell booze and cigarettes (the cruise line dont want the shops competing with the bars). Anyway on the last 2 days we worked a lot. Really a lot. With cigarettes being the major money maker. A 50 pounds carton of cigs on the UK costs 17,99 onboard and even though there are 200 cigs per person limit, nobody respects that. Ive seen many people buy a box of certain brands (a box = 50 cartons) and when asked they replied... oh I dont smoke, gonna take back to sell.

In the other profitable season, Brazil, from December trhu March, the major seller are perfumes, but that due to the fact that import taxes in Brazil are high, very high, and even with our Perfumes/Watches/Booze being DUTY PAID, the duty is from the EU, therefore a low lower than the Brazilian one.

They buy everything.

All the other stuff sold, from clothing, to Bijoux Terner c**p (10 dollar shop, sometimes now 14,99), from candy, to the infamous "Inch of Gold", or as we call it "Inch of Mold" are basically products with a huge mark up, designed to interests specific clients who are already favorable to spend money since they are on vacation.

Ive worked US passengers as well, and in the Caribbean they dont buy much from the shops, since Nassau or several other ports are better priced for cigs and booze. Also, the Americans are much more aware of customs limitations than other nationalities.

Anyway, duty free, no duty.

Also, we had stickers on the shops windows saying "Tax and Duty free shopping" and we had to removed them once since the was a lawyer on board who questioned the validity of it, since its BS.

Answer 3

Duty is tax. This means you do not have to pay tax on items to a certain point. You can buy upto 1 liter of liquor per person over age 21 in most places in the Caribbean and 5 liters from US territories without paying tax. For other gifts and jewlery is varies from $800 to $2000 per person.

Answer 4

that you can buy with not paying the local taxes of the country you are

Answer 5

No taxes on glorified gift items