Although it is anticipated that China’s removal of travel restrictions this month will increase demand in the global luxury retail industry, many customers perceive more benefits to doing their upscale shopping locally on the tax-free island of Hainan.
Thousands of tourists stocked up on cosmetics and handbags while on vacation for the Lunar New Year on Wednesday in Hainan’s Sanya city, where the CDF Mall is a duty-free shopping complex.
Yu Shunxiao, a student who claimed to have previously shopped at London’s Harrods, said, “The UK is quite far, and it’s hard to purchase tickets.” “We can come and go whenever we want in Sanya.”
Beijing dropped the long-standing rule that all incoming travellers undergo rapid hotel quarantine in early January, after a wider national relaxation of COVID-19 prevention policies.
As a result, Chinese citizens have hurried to leave the country. The day after the policy change was announced, foreign airline ticket sales on Trip.com, a well-known ticket-booking website, increased by more than 200%.
Luxury stores and brands are anticipating good sales in 2023, just as the post-pandemic hysteria in the United States and Europe begins to subside, thanks to an anticipated outbound travel boom from China.
Even though customers can now travel freely, some experts predict that a growing amount of China’s luxury expenditure will stay within the nation’s boundaries.
According to Jonathan Yan of the Shanghai office of consultancy Roland Berger, the three years of closed borders have made Chinese consumers more accustomed to purchasing luxury items from other countries within China.
Yan predicted that some luxury customers would resume their pre-COVID international spending. However, I believe that the local (luxury) market will also be significant for the majority of the names.
