Market Intelo projects that the perfume tourism market will grow from $1.2 billion in 2025 to $2.8 billion by 2034, as more people plan fragrance-inspired visits the way they may once have planned trips around a museum exhibition or sporting event.
Fragrance expert and author of The Philosophy of Perfume, Alice Du Parq, said: "Every time I'm in Paris, I pick up a exclusive boutique candle at Maison Diptyque that you can't get anywhere else in the world." She added that treating yourself to a new fragrance or candle on holiday creates a souvenir and sensorial joy that will bring you back to that vacation moment again and again.
The places worth seeking out do not just sell perfume. Many preserve the fragrance culture of their locales, housing antique bottles in rooms that feel almost museum-like. Many must-visit fragrance stores sell exclusives that cannot be bought elsewhere, and some offer the chance to see a fragrance being made or learn an ingredient's story.
Among the stores highlighted are House of Creed in London, founded in 1760 as a Mayfair tailoring house, which turned to scent in 1781; Penhaligon's Regent Street boutique, relaunched in 2025 by designer Christopher Jenner; and Floris London at 89 Jermyn Street, its home since 1730.
In France, Guerlain's 1914 flagship at 68 Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a listed historical monument lined in seventeen varieties of Carrara marble. Diptyque opened in 1961 at 34 Boulevard Saint-Germain, and Ex Nihilo's flagship on Rue Saint-Honoré opened in 2026. In Grasse, Galimard, Molinard and Fragonard are all still standing within walking distance of each other.
In Germany, Byredo's first German store is housed in a historic red-brick building, and Escentric Molecules' first-ever boutique opened in 2026 on Auguststraße.