Luxury goods brand Richemont reveals recovery of Chinese outbound tourism

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Cartier-owned luxury goods brand, Richemont, said that Chinese outbound tourism is making its way back to Asia and Australia, thus helping boost luxury spending in those markets.

Affluent Chinese tourists frequently indulge on luxury items when travelling abroad, with Skift stating that prior to the Covid 19 pandemic, Chinese buyers purchased 70% of their luxury products abroad. As Chinese tourists frequently seek lower prices for high-end goods outside of their home country, the luxury-goods industry is heavily reliant on outbound Chinese tourism.

This, of course, came to an end due to China’s strict travel restrictions, which stymied that source of income.

According to Richemont CFO, Bukhart Grund, markets such as Thailand, Japan, and even Dubai have recovered, but this is yet to be seen in Europe.

The group’s CEO Jerome Lambert added to this saying, “When more flights are added from China to Europe, we will see more tourist outflows come back.”

Luxe Digital estimates that 110 million outbound journeys from Mainland China will be made in 2023. This is just approximately two-thirds of the pre-pandemic level, but the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute predicts that figure will increase to 228 million trips by 2030.

This is exacerbated by the fact that wealthy Chinese outbound tourists spend more money than tourists from any other country. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, Chinese tourists spend twice as much as their American counterparts while travelling abroad.

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