In Q1 of this year spending on shopping by 6.3 million Chinese visitors to Macau, and visitors include both overnight and day visitors arriving by all means of transport, broke through the $US 1 billion for the first time.
Headline Data
The numbers speak for themselves:
- the spending frenzy of 2023 when a small number of Chinese visitors, and especially overnight visitors, spent shedloads of money across all products, has abated so that
- in this year total shopping spend and spend per capita are sustainably up on 2019
- with the 16% increase over 2019 comfortably ahead of inflation.
Spend per Head
Spend by the Chinese in each of the core product categories has increased this year over 2019 with:
- spend per head on clothing doubling since 2019 and
- on handbags or shoes increasing over 70% and
- although Cosmetics leads in terms of per capita spend
- the increase is the smallest across all categories.
Shanghai Visitors Spend the Most
The biggest spenders by far are from Shanghai province this year, and especially those spending a night or more In Macau:
- spending, for example, some $US143 per head on Jewellery and Watches and
- $US99 on Handbags and Shoes while at the other end of the scale
- day visitors arriving from nearby Guangdong province spent just $6 each on those leather goods.
Luxury Travellers Drive the Spend
With China mainland April guests at Macau’s luxury 5 star hotels an impressive 8% points ahead of their April 2019 levels the Travel Retail shopping outlook for the remainder of the year looks promising:
- within this Chinese visitor mix luxury travellers from Shanghai in particular look set to rise in the short term
- airline seat capacities from both Shanghai airports are showing a 23% uplift between June and August with
- further positive movements showing at Tier 2 airports in both Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces
- visitors from both of which showed good levels of shopping spend in the first quarter.
This increase in both stays by mainland Chinese visitors at luxury hotels and retail spend levels is in contrast to a decline in luxury foreign visitors.
While Chinese visitors dominated the luxury hotel market with some 70% of guests arriving from the mainland at the same time guests from South Korea dropped off by 40% points in the first quarter of this year compared with pre-pandemic 2019.
All data provided from Air4casts' ChinaDomestic and Luxury Shopper modules.
Contact Emma Robinson for more information.
