Chinese tourists boost UK high-end sales

London: Although the Chinese New Year is traditionally a time for families to gather at home, a burgeoning middle-class has the money and inclination to travel. Increasingly, the wealthy are using the holiday to get away, and Chinese tourist numbers are set to double by 2014. In London, Chinese tourists make a beeline for the high-end shops.

Wang Yanming, a Beijing publisher, is typical of the affluent visitors arriving in the United Kingdom.

"I have always wanted to go to the United Kingdom. It is a beautiful country with a long history," said the 32 year old. "I did a lot of shopping [too], because it was so much cheaper. In outlets and factory shops, the prices for brands like Burberry, Mulberry, Vivienne Westwood and Ben Sherman were incredibly low. For some of them the price was not even half of that in China."

In all, she spent about 20,000 yuan (Dh11,180) on bags, clothing, shoes, souvenirs and chocolates and another 15,000 yuan on designer handbags that three colleagues asked her to buy for them. The pound has lost around a third of its value against the yuan in the last three years, adding to Britain's attractiveness as a holiday destination, which also means shopping.

"Chinese workers take their holidays at the same time, they come here on tour groups, everything is done for them, they are taken to shops in the West End where they feel obliged to buy something. It's very lucrative for both sides. They are the new Japanese," said Jonathan De Mello, a retail analyst at the CB Richard Ellis.

De Mello said shoppers from mainland China and Hong Kong account for about 30 per cent of the luxury goods market in Britain, followed by Russians, Arabs and Japanese, with British shoppers making up only around 15 per cent of the purchases.

One reason why luxury goods in the United Kingdom are popular with Chinese shoppers is price. Prices of luxury goods can be up to 30 per cent higher in China, compared to Hong Kong or Europe because of import high tariffs and taxes. Famous brands and local products such as Burberry and Clark's shoes are favoured particularly as they are guaranteed not to be fake here.

Britain is moreover expecting an influx of Chinese tourists in the next few years. VisitBritain says visits to the country are forecast to more than double by 2014, growing by 117 per cent relative to 2008, with almost 130,000 additional visits (representing a 0.8 per cent market share for the United Kingdom).

This would make the country the 14th most visited destination from China in 2014. Travel companies say that the United Kingdom should be well-placed to benefit further from China's growing prosperity.

"Top attractions include its unique scenery and culture, shopping, football, visiting children who are studying in the United Kingdom and Harry Potter," said a spokesperson for Titicaca, a Chinese travel company.

Yet some Chinese are deterred from coming to Britain because a separate visa is required. Architect Yu Xiaoliang is about to visit Amsterdam for work and will also visit other European countries.

"But I didn't think about going to the United Kingdom because you need to apply for a separate visa, which is both expensive and troublesome," he said.