China’s luxury-hungry shoppers are spreading the cheer

China's luxury-hungry consumers have been spreading the Christmas cheer to retailers the whole world over this festive season and there are high hopes the trend will continue over the next month or so.

The reason for that is that the Chinese New Year falls early in 2012 -- on January 23 to be precise -- providing the malls and boutiques of the world plenty of opportunity to just keep their sales and special promotions running.

According to a report published just before Christmas by Global Blue -- a Swiss-based company that promotes itself as the world's largest tax refund and shopping service provider -- Paris has been the most popular European destination for China's luxury shoppers in the past week, accounting for 15 percent of purchases made abroad. Next follows London (10 percent) and Milan and Berlin (two percent each).

Overall, according to Global Blue, Chinese shoppers had until the end of November spent US$2.15 trillion on tax-free products -- an increase of 56 percent year on year and a figure that accounts for 21 percent of all global tax-free purchases for the year. That made Chinese tax-free shoppers the world's largest group in front of Russians (15 percent of global sales) and then Americans, Japanese and Indonesians (all four percent).

Louis Vuitton remains the brand most Chinese are hunting down, with the Global Blue team finding 63 percent of Chinese luxury shoppers have purchased something from the brand over the past 12 months (as compared to 53 percent who said the brand was their "preferred" luxury option).

The rise in spending from Chinese tourists is a direct result of the country's "growing prosperity and appreciating currency," Global Blue told the China Daily newspaper.

Hong Kong remains China's "mall" of choice as although the city is officially part of the country, its position as a "Special Administrative Region" means it escapes both mainland China's high tax on luxury good and its import tariffs, meaning items can be sold for as much as 40 percent less than across the border.

More than 25 million Chinese tourists have visited Hong Kong already this year -- an all-time record -- and figures showing just how much they spend over the festive season should be released in early January.

China's top brands for 2011:

- Louis Vuitton 53 percent preferred/63 percent purchased
- Chanel 41/52
- Gucci 34/41
- Hermes 25/22
- Cartier 20/21
- Dior 18/24
- Burberry 17/18
- Prada 8/12
- Rolex 8/7.*

*Source: The Global Blue Dossier

This article forwarded by www.medicaltourism.hk from yahoo.