Week In Review: April 19-23

Jing Daily’s Top Posts For The Week In case you missed them the first time around, here are some of Jing Daily’s top posts for the week of April 19-23: 50% Of Luxury Purchases By Chinese In 2009 Were Gifts: Survey This week, a new study by McKinsey & Company indicates that around 50% of Chinese consumers who bought luxury goods last year did so with the sole intention of giving them to others as gifts.This is up from the 38% of consumers purchased with intent to “gift” in 2008. According to China Radio International (CRI), part of the rise in luxury gift-giving last year was due to the relaxation of travel restrictions and the resulting jump in “shopping tourism.” As Jing Daily wrote in February, the largest-ever Chinese tour group to hit New York parted ways with around $6 million over the course of the Chinese New Year holiday, and Hong Kong retailers have been seen income soar as more mainlanders flock to the city’s duty-free shops and high-end malls. Citroën Unveils China-Designed Metropolis Concept The big news coming out of the China auto world today is the unveiling of Citroën’s Metropolis concept, the first vehicle to be fully designed at PSA Peugeot-Citroën’s new design studio in Shanghai. The Metropolis concept, which fits very much into the “bigger is better” mold popular among China’s urban wealthy, will skip the upcoming Beijing Auto Show and make its official debut at the Shanghai World Expo next month. According to a release, the Metropolis pays homage to China’s economic development over the past 30 years, and despite its massive size is designed to minimize environmental impact with a plug-in hybrid drivetrain and Hydractive suspension. (Which Citroën claims will produce only around 20% of the CO2 emissions of a conventional engine.) Mainland Chinese Likely To Surpass Japanese As Top Taiwan Visitors For First Time Last year, amid the global financial slowdown that saw the number of non-Chinese tourists to Taiwan plummet, Taiwanese tourism officials began an unprecedented tourism outreach program throughout mainland China, embarking on promotional campaigns in Guizhou and announcing that the first-ever cross-straits tourism offices will open in Taipei and Beijing next month. Along with increased business ties, the administration of Ma Ying-jeou has encouraged more tourism exchange — a move very much welcomed by hotels and tour operators in Taiwan. As Yao Ta-kuang, chairman of the Travel Agent Association of Taiwan, said last year, “[In 2008,] mainland Chinese made 40 million trips abroad. If even just 1 million of them [came] to Taiwan, we could keep the industry going for generations.” As cross-straits travel becomes easier, this year Taiwan is projected to receive more Chinese visitors for the first time since records began in 1964. As a BusinessWeek article notes today, around 1.2 million mainlanders will visit Taiwan this year, over 1.13 million Japanese. If these figures prove accurate, in 2010 Japan will lose its spot as Taiwan’s top source of visitors for the first time ever. Who’s Buying Luxury Goods As Gifts In China? “China Economic Weekly” reported on April 20 that, according to a recently released report on the Chinese luxury goods market by Bain & Co., the luxury market in China grew nearly 12% in 2009, reaching $9.6 billion and accounting for 27.5% of global market share. In the next five years, the Chinese luxury goods market will amount to $14.6 billion and top the list of global luxury spending. According to Tianjin Returned Overseas Chinese Vice-Chairman Pan Qinglin, levying a luxury tax can, to a certain degree, address the unfair distribution of social income. Luxury consumption always touches a public nerve, and the imposition of a high luxury tax is advocated to curb extravagance, and reflects one of the reactions of the public towards luxury consumption. Luxury goods are included in the consumer taxes currently put in place in China — Included in these taxes are non-necessity goods like jewelry, cosmetics, etc. Any other luxury goods that enter the market are subject to the same luxury tax. Wynn Planning Third Casino, Vegas Headquarters Shift In Macau Today, at the opening of Wynn Resort’s second Macau casino,Encore Macau, American gaming mogul Steve Wynn spelled out his company’s plans for the former Portuguese colony that now accounts for a reported 60% of Wynn Resorts revenue. According to Wynn himself, the company’s China strategy, following last year’s IPO in Hong Kong (which raised $1.87 billion) centers on a strong commitment to the market, rather than the pursuit of quick profits. As Wynn likes to say, Wynn Resorts is now, for all intents and purposes, “a Chinese company.” Today, in an interview with CNBC, Wynn said that he is thinking of moving the company headquarters from Las Vegas to Macau, a move that underpins the wider Eastward shift in the gaming industry. Three years ago, Macau surpassed Las Vegas to become the world’s largest gambling center, and there are signs that the city is re-emerging from the global financial crisis — which hit Macau harder than many had expected — through a stronger emphasis on tourism, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and events), and high-end retail.

Week In Review: April 19-23

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Published April 23, 2010

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Week In Review: April 19-23