International travelers have had various popular reasons for going overseas. For many, it can be for work, to fill a bucket list, for leisure, or for medical reasons. That said, recent trends have seen younger generations going on international trips for fashion tourism.
While fast fashion dominated physical shelves and online retailers for years prior to and following the COVID-19 pandemic, the oversaturation has left consumers longing for quality clothing. Now that tariffs are impacting fast-fashion brands, many are reverting to a focus on quality over quantity. This has resulted in a revival of sorts, especially in fashion hubs like Milan, Paris, and more.
Currently, customers with enough money to spare are willing to travel out to these fashion hubs to shop. It’s a trend that is much needed due to the noticeable decline in general tourism globally. Fashion tourism is one of the better ways to boost interest in a country’s culture among wealthy consumers.
That said, while focusing on these trends, companies need to be aware of how negative some tourism practices have been on the lives of locals. Typically, money that tourists have spent on tourist traps and chain hotels has barely found their way back to fund the local businesses and cultural sites.
Unsurprisingly, this has led to backlash from locals to prevent tourists from coming in, which also had the unfortunate effect of decimating communities where tourism was their largest revenue stream. So, while concerns against tourism are valid, there are ways to make tourism viable while not harming local communities.
As with other domestic industries, fashion companies should do their best to partner with local businesses to ensure that tourism revenue goes towards keeping them in business and not disrupting lives.
