Burberry shoppers snap up goods in Paris and Milan, not London

Brand says decision to stop tourists from reclaiming VAT paid in UK has dented country’s reputation as luxury shopping destination. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Tourists hoping to snap up Burberry products are heading to Paris and Milan rather than London, while luxury shoppers face significant price increases as costs rise, according to the British fashion brand.

Burberry, which plans a return to the “Britishness” of the 167-year-old company in a refocus under the new chief executive, Jonathan Akeroyd, said that American tourists in Europe fuelled a double-digit increase in store sales in the three months to the end of September.