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Who in their right mind visits a department store on holiday? A lot of us, apparently

Harrods: lovely, but still a shop - karp85
Harrods: lovely, but still a shop - karp85

Here are some nice, normal things to do on a city break: wander the cobbled back streets, hop on a bike, find a park, visit an art gallery, go to that non-touristy restaurant your friend told you about, feast on local delicies, watch a play, people-watch.

Here are some things you wouldn't do on a city break: tour a car park, go for a dental check up, hang out at an industrial estate.

And then there are the pastimes that hover somewhere in the middle. Going to a department store, for example.

According to VisitBritain's latest statistics, nearly 60 per cent of all inbound tourists will go shopping as part of their trip - half of them to "shopping centres", with "department stores and outlets" the next most popular.

The National History Museum: also lovely, but with dinosaurs - Credit: daniel vine
Why go shopping when you could go to the Natural History Museum? Credit: daniel vine

I find this baffling. Last week, my otherwise sane American aunt came to London for a long weekend and on her hit list was the V&A (good idea), Harrods (eh), and Westfield (what?). As a proponent of the live-and-let-live philosophy, I was surprised to find myself annoyed by it.

Why would anyone schlep 3,459 miles across the ocean to spend their precious hours roaming the floors of a retail venue? Harrods is indeed a splendid building, and the uniformed doormen are quite novel, but as soon as you step inside it's just cosmetics counters, homewares and rails of clothes.

The Natural History Museum is also a splendid building, and it has dinosaur skeletons inside. Dinosaurs. If the funny uniforms are really what does it for you, head to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards, or meet the Beefeaters at the Tower of London.

Even in fledgling cities like Dubai, where in lieu of centuries-old monuments they've got staggeringly large shopping malls, there are better ways to do it.

Lara Dunston writes: "For many visitors to Dubai, the main reason to visit the city is to shop, and shopping is arguably a favourite occupation of its inhabitants; partly because the shopping is so good, and partly because, in a country where the weather is sweltering most of the year, air-conditioned shopping malls have become – like traditional town squares – a wonderful place to socialise.

"But Dubai must have hundreds of malls, many of which really aren’t worth going to. Stroll instead between the city's souqs in Bur Dubai and Deira, and take an abra from one side of the creek to the other - a lot more fun."

Dubai: rammed with malls, but also quirky souqs - Credit: istock
Dubai: rammed with malls, but also quirky souqs Credit: istock

There are some reasons to visit a department store, granted. The airline lost your luggage and you need supplies. You're a die-hard fashion fiend on the hunt for a hard-to-find label (in the UK, clothes make up 40 per cent of the items purchased by tourists each year - souvenirs account for only 15 per cent). Or you're absolutely loaded and just love buying things.

As for bargain hunters, there certainly was a time when it was significantly cheaper for Britons to buy a pair of Levi's in America, thus shopping stateside made sense. There were also video games and DVDs on sale across the pond that weren't yet out in the UK, and brands you simply couldn't buy anywhere else.

But that's seldom the case anymore. Most brands have gone global, the internet has trumped DVDs, and exchange rates aren't nearly as favourable as they used to be. These days, browsing a department store in Europe or America is all much of a muchness - surely a soulless pursuit.

Personally, I hate crowds and I hate shopping, so perhaps I'm overly-biased. But I asked the rest of the Telegraph Travel team whether any of them visited department stores for fun while on holiday, and the overwhelming response was no.

"Kill me now," replied Teresa Machan, cruise editor. "Waste of time," remarked Lizze Frainier, a hotels editor.

"The only one I’ve ever been to abroad was the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, because it’s an architectural masterpiece. I bought lunch but nothing more," said digital travel editor Oliver Smith, who eschews shopping altogether when abroad, except for wine at the airport.

Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II: Now we're talking - Credit: istock
Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II: Now we're talking Credit: istock

Airport shopping I can understand. There's not much else to do. There's even a mini Harrods at Heathrow Airport, for those with an unyielding desire to own a branded teddy bear but didn't make it to Knightsbridge.

Our American family editor Sally Peck disagrees with me when it comes to Harrods. It was voted among London's top family attractions last year in a study on 2,000 children, for one.

"There's nothing of London in it," she wrote of the Qatari-owned house of luxury. "But there’s also nothing else in London quite like it. It's certainly a spectacle - if you have money burning a hole in your pocket or can convince your child that window shopping is the best kind."

Fine, Harrods gets a pass. But the next most popular department store in our capital? Selfridges, according to Visit London. I have nothing against Selfridges, it does what is says on the tin, but as a tourist destination? Come on.

I can see the appeal of window shopping in a city with a vastly different culture, like Tokyo - with its robot shop assistants, or Shanghai. Flipping it around, is this why for Chinese tourists, a trip to out-of-town shopping outlet Bicester Village is nearly as popular as Buckingham Palace? A staggering 6.4 million of them visited last year - which aligns Bicester with the UK’s most popular attraction of all, the British Museum, and trumps the National Gallery and Tate Modern.

Bicester Village: Or a scene from The Walking Dead - Credit: getty
Bicester Village: not unlike a scene from The Walking Dead Credit: getty

“Most of our guests are coming because they have heard it’s an amazing destination and a place to have a fun day out,” a rep for the owner of Bicester told Hugh Morris when he ventured there.

It's literally an entire village of big-brand shops. Good for deal-sniffers, yes. A fun day out? Questionable. Worth a long-haul flight? Confoundingly, it would appear so. 

Do you carve out time to visit famed shopping centres when you go abroad? Or do you go abroad to escape things like shopping centres? Cast your opinion and leave a comment in the box below.