Cartier owner Richemont said Chinese tourism is starting to return throughout Asia and Australia, helping boost luxury spending in those markets, though it has yet to reappear in Europe.
(Bloomberg) — Cartier owner Richemont said Chinese tourism is starting to return throughout Asia and Australia, helping boost luxury spending in those markets, though it has yet to reappear in Europe.
Some outbound tourism is slowly appearing in markets like Thailand and Japan, and even Dubai, Richemont Chief Financial Officer Burkhart Grund told reporters at a briefing in Geneva.
“When more flights are added from China to Europe, we will see more tourist outflows come back,” Chief Executive Officer Jerome Lambert said at the meeting.
The luxury-goods industry used to be highly dependent on consumption by Chinese tourists, who often sought cheaper prices for high-end goods outside of their home market. That came to a halt due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, which stymied that source of revenue for the past three years.
During that time, Richemont shifted more to rely on domestic luxury demand in China, and now its business on the mainland is now much bigger than it was prior to Covid-19, Grund said. December was a low point for the company, as more than 80% of its staff in the country contracted the viral illness. Domestic demand is now rebounding after the country abandoned its Covid-Zero policy, according to the CFO.
Separately, Grund said the company hasn’t seen any change in demand in the US amid concern over bank failures there. “Overall the trend is still very positive.”
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