With the Eurozone crisis and slow growth producing a slow season for sales, Europe is looking to the East to boost its luxury retail figures.
England, France and Wales are amongst those countries ramping up their efforts to attract the growing number of Chinese tourists in Europe. Thanks to a strengthening yuan, relaxing of visa restrictions and general improvements to social mobility, Chinese outbound tourism has been increasing by around 20% a year since 2005, making it a key market group for Western economies. Chinese tourism was worth an estimated $55 billion in 2011.
At Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, Chinese passengers are greeted in their native language and handed 'hongbao', Chinese 'red envelopes', containing Mandarin and Cantonese travel guides, free iPhone and Android travel apps and discount vouchers for luxury items. In 2010, France was the most popular European destination for Chinese tourists with over 910,000 visitors, around 5% of the French tourist total that year.
An architect's impression of Maxhard's Welsh development Image: Maxhard Ltd |
After a lacklustre Christmas season for the retail sector, London saw a pleasant boost in December sales due to increased spending from Chinese consumers. Luxury departments stores, such as Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Selfridges have been training their staff in Chinese language and customs in an effort to appeal more to the 'luxury traveling consumer' who spends, on average, six times more on luxury goods abroad than they do at home.
Shen Jie, a resident of Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, “prefers shopping for luxurious products in European cities, as they are much cheaper and come with more options than in China”, and will usually spend around 300,000 yuan ($47,000) on luxury goods each time she goes abroad.
Deep in the Welsh countryside, developer Maxhard Ltd is building a £50 million ($77.8m) luxury resort aimed at the Chinese market. Designed to give Asian clients a “tranquil retreat”, the complex will contain a 100 bed hotel and 80 holiday homes and should attract over 20,000 visitors a year upon completion.