CONSUMERS

Asian Millionaires Favour Experiences Over Luxury Goods – Agility

by

Limei Hoang

|

This is the featured image caption
Credit: This is the featured image credit

When it comes to luxury spending, Asian millionaires are shifting their priorities towards travel experiences, valuing health and well-being over personal luxury goods.

Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.

PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.

In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”

The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris

When it comes to luxury spending, Asian millionaires are shifting their priorities towards travel experiences, valuing health and well-being over personal luxury goods.

Asian millionaires are shifting their focus away buying personal luxury goods and more towards travel-related experiences involving spas, exercise, health and wellness, according to a behavioural report by consulting firm Agility Research & Strategy.

The study, which has been conducted since 2015, looks at the consumption patterns of high-net worth individuals from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Japan.

Travel accounted for the biggest spending category overall, ahead of personal luxury goods, except in China where millionaires still spent more on fashion. On average, Asian millionaires travelled around two to four times internationally, and one to five times for business in the past 12 months.

“Many Asian millionaires point to a change in priorities from focusing on brand names and physical luxury goods towards a focus on quality of life, and an increasing association of international travel with a high-quality lifestyle,” said Amrita Banta, Managing Director at Agility.

Shopping is less relevant

Shopping, which until a few years ago was cited as the top reason to travel across all six markets covered by the study, is becoming less relevant, she noted. “We continue to see a shift in priorities away from material items to experiences. Affluent consumers want to spend time on experiences that make them… grow.”

“Wellness experiences… from spas to nutrition, exercise to medical, physical rejuvenation to mental well-being, are on top of the list of affluent desires.”

Japan, Australia and the United States were cited as the top destinations for the coming year with issues like sustainability and eco-friendliness also growing in importance for Asian millionaires, particularly for China and India with 85 percent stating these issues influence their choice of hotel.

Asian millionaires' interests are also becoming more sophisticated: city tours, diving, food, amusement parks, spa and hot springs are some of the most cited reasons to travel.

Looking forward, Banta said she expects experiences to remain a spending focus particularly amongst millionaires aged between 25 and 45 years old. “I think experiences, food, wellness, exploration will all be key themes.”

Limei Hoang
Limei Hoang

Senior Editor, Luxury Society

Limei Hoang is a senior editor at Luxury Society, based in Geneva. She was formerly an associate editor at the Business of Fashion in London. Previously, Limei spent six years at Reuters as a journalist, and she has also written for the BBC, The Independent, and New Statesman.

CONSUMERS

Asian Millionaires Favour Experiences Over Luxury Goods – Agility

by

Limei Hoang

|

This is the featured image caption
Credit : This is the featured image credit

When it comes to luxury spending, Asian millionaires are shifting their priorities towards travel experiences, valuing health and well-being over personal luxury goods.

Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.

PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.

In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”

The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris

When it comes to luxury spending, Asian millionaires are shifting their priorities towards travel experiences, valuing health and well-being over personal luxury goods.

Asian millionaires are shifting their focus away buying personal luxury goods and more towards travel-related experiences involving spas, exercise, health and wellness, according to a behavioural report by consulting firm Agility Research & Strategy.

The study, which has been conducted since 2015, looks at the consumption patterns of high-net worth individuals from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Japan.

Travel accounted for the biggest spending category overall, ahead of personal luxury goods, except in China where millionaires still spent more on fashion. On average, Asian millionaires travelled around two to four times internationally, and one to five times for business in the past 12 months.

“Many Asian millionaires point to a change in priorities from focusing on brand names and physical luxury goods towards a focus on quality of life, and an increasing association of international travel with a high-quality lifestyle,” said Amrita Banta, Managing Director at Agility.

Shopping is less relevant

Shopping, which until a few years ago was cited as the top reason to travel across all six markets covered by the study, is becoming less relevant, she noted. “We continue to see a shift in priorities away from material items to experiences. Affluent consumers want to spend time on experiences that make them… grow.”

“Wellness experiences… from spas to nutrition, exercise to medical, physical rejuvenation to mental well-being, are on top of the list of affluent desires.”

Japan, Australia and the United States were cited as the top destinations for the coming year with issues like sustainability and eco-friendliness also growing in importance for Asian millionaires, particularly for China and India with 85 percent stating these issues influence their choice of hotel.

Asian millionaires' interests are also becoming more sophisticated: city tours, diving, food, amusement parks, spa and hot springs are some of the most cited reasons to travel.

Looking forward, Banta said she expects experiences to remain a spending focus particularly amongst millionaires aged between 25 and 45 years old. “I think experiences, food, wellness, exploration will all be key themes.”

Limei Hoang
Limei Hoang

Senior Editor, Luxury Society

Limei Hoang is a senior editor at Luxury Society, based in Geneva. She was formerly an associate editor at the Business of Fashion in London. Previously, Limei spent six years at Reuters as a journalist, and she has also written for the BBC, The Independent, and New Statesman.

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