Chinese consumers are not only financially boosting the Chinese and Hong Kong luxury markets, but they are also significantly contributing to luxury retailers in American cities like New York.
More and more Chinese tourists are heading to New York city for luxury shopping and the main reason is that the phenomenal economic growth their country has seen over the years has made an extremely large number of Chinese citizens very wealthy. Many now have substantial disposable income and they are known to enjoy spending it on luxury goods and services. Affluent Chinese individuals are hooked on luxury brands and have become conscious and accustomed to labels as they have grown into status symbols.
Luxury retailers in both Europe and America are happily welcoming Chinese tourists as they are increasing their travel in large numbers and bring a “spend, spend, spend” mentality that has been a huge boost to retailers. Several agencies study the flow of tourists from China and their behavior – such as Crain’s, how released its report on the subject recently and affirmed that the growing trend is quite visible. The visitors from China and Hong Kong coming into New York City added up to a significant 306,000 last year. In 2002, that number was just 59,000. Crain’s also reports that the average age of the Chinese tourist in New York is 38 years and the typical Chines tourist stays an average of 11.3 nights in the city and spends some $3,297 per visit, which works out to an expenditure of around $292 per day. Last year, visitors from China contributed $877 million to the New York City’s economy alone.
Marketers in the U.S. are well aware of this boom and the growing number of visitors. A number of business on Madison Avenue joined forces over the summer to offer coupons to Chinese and Brazilian tourists who were shopping on the high-end retail strip to incentivize their visit. Luxury city guide, Front Desk New York, which is published six times per year, added a Chinese language supplement aimed specifically at free-spending Chinese visitors. American and European buyers are less brand-loyal nowadays, but the Chinese shoppers are almost completely motivated by brand loyalty and brands as status symbols.
Source: Elite Choice
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