BEIJING: Chinese tourists spent $85 billion (about 529.6 billion yuan) overseas in 2012, twice the 2012 annual revenue of Mobil Oil Corp, company earned throughout most of the world.
Public data reveals that the consumption of Chinese tourists overseas in 2011 was about 200 billion yuan and is believed to continue at a high growth rate into 2013.
In the background of the world’s economic slump, Chinese tourists are contributing a lot to the rest of the world.
"Making money in China, then spending it overseas" has become a common lifestyle of wealthy Chinese, which is considered a loss to the Chinese economy.
However, China is adjusting its domestic economic structure for more local consumption as economic growth has slowed down in recent years. It is worth thinking about why rich Chinese people prefer overseas consumption and how to improve the attractiveness of the Chinese market.
To start out, overseas consumption has a much lower cost for luxuries of which the average luxury prices in China are 70 percent higher than in France, 50 percent higher than in the US and 45 percent higher than in Hong Kong.
In addition, the overseas market provides a better consumption environment, especially in terms of product quality.
Moreover, special industry controlled policies force people to consume overseas. For example, affected by Chinese house purchase quota policy, rich people choose to invest in real estate overseas. Data shows that Chinese people spent over $7 billion yuan on real estate in the U.S. in 2011 and is expected to spend more in 2012, according to People.com.cn.
For Chinese rich people with over 10 million yuan in investment assets, one-third owns at least one overseas asset, showed China’s White Paper. (QNA)
