The Financial Times will hold the Asia edition of its Business of Luxury Summit at Capella Bangkok on October 19 and 20. Last year’s edition ran at the Four Seasons Hong Kong. The move south puts the FT's regional luxury conference in a market that is rebuilding both what it sells and who it sells it to. Jing Daily is a supporting partner of the summit. Registration is open at luxuryasia.live.ft.com. Our readers get 20% off registration with the code JINGDAILY20. Tourism numbers slip as Chinese arrivals climb Thailand’s foreign arrivals were down 3.05% year-on-year as of July 18, at 17.36 million visitors and 838.7 billion Thai baht ($24.8 billion) in revenue. China sits at the top of the source market table with 2.86 million visitors, up 14%, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) forecasts 5 million Chinese arrivals for the full year. Flight capacity is running at 53% of pre-pandemic levels, which caps how quickly any of it moves. TAT signed tourism agreements with five Chinese partners in July during Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s visit to Beijing. The government has stopped managing the arrivals number. TAT deputy governor Nithee Seeprae put the strategy in terms of revenue per visitor in July, targeting travelers who come for medical care, wellness, golf and festivals because they stay longer and spend more. Visitors currently spend around $1,500 per trip. Officials want that at $2,400. “For Thailand, luxury is about meaningful experiences and exclusive experiences,” Nithee said. “That’s our new definition of luxury.” The full-year target is roughly 33 million visitors, well below the nearly 40 million who arrived in 2019. How Chinese outbound tourism is reshaping luxury spending in Asia Chinese travel patterns complicate the pitch. Summer booking data compiled by China Trading Desk put Seoul at the top of the mainland outbound list with 2.15 million arrivals expected between June and August, up 14%, with Kuala Lumpur up 16% and both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi inside the top 10. Spending per outbound trip hit a two-year high of $4,085 in March, and the composition has changed underneath that. Fashion and beauty accounted for about 76% of Chinese traveler spending in June, up from 71% a year earlier. The share going to jewelry and watches fell to 23% from 28%. Bangkok retail is building for the opposite outcome. Buccellati opened its largest Asia-Pacific boutique at Siam Paragon in June, its first in Thailand. The mall runs the second edition of Bangkok Watch Week from September 22 to 27 with more than 45 brands, over 50% up on last year, including Blancpain, Breguet and Tudor as new additions, plus Southeast Asia’s first FHH Academy Lounge. The 2025 edition drew more than 20,000 visitors. That event closes three weeks before the FT summit opens, which gives the room a fresh read on how Thai and regional collectors actually behaved. The venue carries its own signal. Capella sits on the Chao Phraya Estate on Charoenkrung Road alongside Four Seasons, the riverside development that anchors the top of Bangkok hospitality. What the Business of Luxury Summit means for China strategy FT Live expects around 400 attendees from brands, hospitality groups and investors, with the program built around the consumer and cultural forces reshaping the industry. The FT ran a webinar in June as a prelude, moderated by Kati Chitrakorn, the paper’s luxury consultant, with Linda Petrie of Petrie PR, Nick Bradstreet of Savills APAC Retail and Sherona Shng of The Langham. The session covered what affluent travelers in Southeast Asia now expect and what regional operators can deliver at that price point. For brands running China strategy, three questions travel to Bangkok. Whether hard luxury can hold its share of the Chinese travel wallet as fashion and beauty take more of it. How much of the short-haul Asian trip Thailand can win back from Seoul and Kuala Lumpur. Whether a market built on volume can be repriced around a visitor who spends $2,400 without losing the operators who depend on the other kind.
