The days when Europe’s luxury retailers could sit back while a paid guide brought busloads of Asian tourists to their stores are numbered. Today’s Chinese traveller is a more discerning shopper, excited by independent brands and experiences.
Yet many watch and jewellery brands still cater to this crowd with coarse promotional deals, slapping Chinese characters and symbols on new year-edition products and domestic campaigns that fail to connect with an influential younger generation of travellers.
Some labels, however, are starting to wake up. The relative youthfulness of China’s luxury shoppers compared with their global peers has seen some marketers move to exploit their digital savvy by engaging them online, before they have even boarded the plane.