Chinese buy more than ever overseas – Rupert Hoogwerf

While the luxury goods suffer from the anti-graft crackdown, what the Chinese buy, they buy increasingly abroad, says China Rich List founder Rupert Hoogewerf at the presentation of his eleventh Hurun Best of the Best Awards 2015, a benchmark for the luxury sector, according to the Shanghai Daily.

Shanghai Daily:

Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said, “The government’s crackdown on luxury gifting continues to have its effect, with luxury gifting down a further 5 percent year on year, taking it to 30 percent over two years. Travel retail continues to change the dynamics of luxury in China, with 7 out of 10 luxury goods bought by Chinese now being bought overseas.”

Consumer electronics, led by Apple, was the gift of choice, overtaking LV and last year’s Number One Hermes, which dropped down to seventh. Moutai shoots back into Top 10 after two year ‘holiday’. Red wine had a poor year, dropping down to third place in the preferred gift. Watches rose to second place, although especially for watches worth less than 20,000 yuan. Overall spending crept back up to the levels of two years ago.

The Hurun China Business Confidence Index, an index measuring the confidence in the economy going forward two years, rose for the second consecutive year: 3 out of 10 are highly confident in the economy going forward.

Chinese luxury consumers continue to be extremely busy, away on business trips for 8 days a month on average, whilst super rich are away for 11 days a month. 6.4 percent away for more than 20 days a month. Despite this, they take 8 and 12 days of holiday respectively, one more than last year. Chinese New Year is preferred time to travel, followed by October Golden Week and the summer holidays. The Peninsula Hotel replaced the Shangri-La as China’s preferred hotel brand. The Mandarin Oriental improved the fastest, rising to second place.