Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | November 2013 18 IN FOCUS At roughly US$1,200 on average per trip, Chinese travelers spend more on shopping than Americans, Russians and Japanese combined, and their rate of expenditure grew by 50% last year compared with 30% worldwide. Gifting is a big part of this, the biggest, actually, according to Hurun , which identifies it as “the number one factor driving Chinese travel shopping” based on HNWIs polled for the 2013 report. For men, watches are prized the most as gifts, followed by red wine; for women it’s jewelry and then clothing. When men buy for women it’s jewelry overwhelmingly (60% of HNWIs surveyed); clothing (28%) is what women mostly buy other women. As for brands, of course, French and Italian luxury names top the list. For men it’s Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Cartier, Chanel, Gucci, Armani, Prada, winemaker Chateau Lafite Rothschild, US brands Apple and Tiffany, Montblanc from Germany, Switzerland’s Longines, Britain’s Burberry and from China, Moutai, a popular liquor. Among women the top three brands are French (Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Cartier), followed by Tiffany, Apple, Montblanc, Gucci, Prada, Dior and Burberry. The ‘Young,’ the ‘Affluent’ This basically is what Shoppes at Parisian will be selling into with more than 130 outlets across 300,000 square feet at full build-out. It’s an enviable prospect any way you look at it. Sands looks at it, interestingly enough, as a point of departure, an opportunity to differentiate Parisian’s offering from the sizable retail inventory the company already has in place on Cotai. There are, the Retail division says, “new and creative forces” stepping onto the world’s catwalks, as exhibited in recent times at events like Paris Fashion Week, and these will be the inspiration, and the Shoppes intends to showcase them, some of them never seen before on a shelf or mannequin in Macau. “The luxury brand mix will reflect a new direction,” the literature states. “These new brands to Asia will sit alongside some of the biggest powerhouse brands” in what it calls a “more avant-garde approach to merchandising”. Mr Sylvester, who has been involved in more than 40 retail projects over a 22-year career in the region, 12 of them as Asia head of International Retail Leasing for Jones Lang LaSalle, wants Parisian