Wealthy Chinese shoppers’ latest hot spot: Dubai

BEIJING, Jan 3 — Move over Paris and New York. The hot new luxury shopping destination for well-heeled China tourists is crisis-hit Dubai.

Some tour agencies in Beijing, and even smaller cities like Chengdu in south-western China, reported a doubling or even tripling of people signing up for tours to the Middle Eastern playground of the rich and famous during the Christmas season.

Chengdu-based Dreams Travel tour agency told The Sunday Times that its 7,000 yuan (RM3,456) five-day package and 50,000 yuan luxury tours were all fully booked.

Some Chinese are willing to splurge 30,000 yuan per person for week-long tours at attractions such as The Dubai Mall, the world’s largest shopping and entertainment venue, and Mall of the Emirates.

Angel Li, in her late 20s, who works for her father’s real estate business, flew off on Christmas Eve for a 15,000 yuan, five-day trip with her boyfriend.

Having shopped in Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue in New York’s Manhattan, as well as in London’s High Street as a teenager, Li said she was “looking for more excitement in a new place”.

She already had her shopping list planned before the trip: Louis Vuitton, Ferragamo, Dior and Monte Bianco.

A Beijing executive in his 30s told Beijing TV that he was planning to “take advantage of the year-end sales to buy duty-free branded goods that are cheaper than in China”.

He boarded the plane with an empty luggage bag and was prepared to buy another two to cart back the merchandise.

Compared to Western shopping hot spots such as Milan, London and New York, Dubai is a novelty to Chinese big spenders.

Its US$26 billion (RM124 billion) debt scare in end-November, which briefly spooked world markets, has helped.

“The debt crisis has made Dubai famous in Chinese news, so everyone knows about it,” said a sales manager with Dreams Travel who gave only his surname, Li.

And with hotel rates in the emirate under pressure because of the debt restructuring debacle, tour packages look even more attractive.

The Dubai Tourism Board said compared with 2008, when some 96,300 Chinese guests stayed at hotels there, it expected a “remarkable increase” for 2009.

Adding to Dubai’s advantage is the Chinese government’s recognition of the United Arab Emirates as an “approved destination” as of Sept 15 last year.

The status allows locals to apply for visas to travel to Dubai for leisure.

Another edge Dubai has over more established shopping hot spots in the West: Flights from Beijing to Dubai take about 71/2 hours, compared with 91/2 hours to Paris and about 13 hours to New York.

Singapore, another popular shopping destination for the Chinese, has no cause for worry, said tour agencies in Beijing.

“Most Chinese still prefer Singapore because the people there can speak Mandarin. And Singapore’s duty-free shopping is also world renowned,” said China International Travel Service’s manager, who wanted to be known only as Sun. — Straits Times


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Holiday Luncheon and Fashion Show Attracts a Great Crowd of Shoppers

Ray Negron Surprise Guest at Boys and Girls Club of OB-EN Holiday Luncheon
Ladies dressed for the Holiday Luncheon and Fashion Show to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Oyster Bay-East Norwich arrived early to take advantage of the opportunity to shop at the holiday boutiques before sitting down to lunch at The Metropolitan on Tuesday, Dec. 8.

“Welcome to the Metropolitan Club and Happy Holidays. We are thrilled that we have 170 guests today. Thank you all for coming,” said Lori Bahnik, Boys and Girls Club of OB-EN co-president. She called up to the dais Ewa Litke and Marie Bahnik and thanked them for co-chairing the luncheon and presented them with beautiful bouquets of flowers.

“The Nutcracker ornaments on the tables were prizes for the woman with the closest birthday,” said Ms. Bahnik. They were donated by Ewa and Jim Litke.

“Shop as much as you can. Fifteen percent of all today’s purchases goes to the club,” she added.

Ms. Bahnik said this year’s gala had been a wonderful cruise (at the clubhouse) and that next year, guests should save the date Friday, June 11 for their gala to be held at The Metropolitan. “You have to come to make it a very gala event,” she said. The 2010 gala is called Dancing Under the Stars!

She asked if friends had seen the new playground at the club and credited NYS Senator Carl Marcellino for helping them get it for the children. “The kids love it. They want to go out and play in rain, wind and snow,” she added.

Each guest left with a Christopher Radko ornament donated by Diane and Ray Knight of K-II Home Furnishings of Locust Valley. The table centerpieces were donated by Ewa and Jim Litke. The chocolate snowflakes that were a table gift were donated by Marie and Claude Bahnik.

The elegant Mitchell/Marsh fashion show had outfits from Diane Von Furstenberg, Hugo Boss, Cedrics Fur, Charles Chang Lima, Missoni, Armani Collezioni, Tory Burch, Rivamonti, Etro, Phillip Lim, Ralph Lauren, Hani Y, Theory, Badgley Mischka and Carmen Marc Valvo. It included shoes by Manolo Blahnik, Tory Burch, Prada, Stuart Weitzman, Jimmy Choo, Cole Hann, Sam Edelman, Salvatore Ferragamo and Gucci.

Surprise Guest

As Lori Bahnik called out the winning raffle prize numbers, she stopped to announce a surprise guest, Ray Negron, a supporter of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Mr. Negron currently works with the New York Yankees as a personal consultant to George Steinbrenner. “Mr. Steinbrenner caught me doing graffiti (drawing a Yankee logo on a Yankee Stadium wall) and offered me a job as a bat boy instead,” said Ray. He spent Saturday, Dec. 5 at the Brooks Brothers store in Manhasset Americana encouraging shoppers to spend to support their favorite charity at their 14th annual holiday shopping benefit, Champions for Charity. One of those benefiting was the Boys and Girls Club of Oyster Bay-East Norwich, and meeting members at the event prompted this visit he said.

Mr. Negron is the author of several children’s books. Ray’s first book, The Boy of Steel, was #2 on the NY Times Bestseller List and was instrumental in helping numerous charities, little leagues and the Boys & Girls Club to raise funds for their programs. Ray’s second book, The Greatest Story Never Told: The Babe and Jackie has helped juvenile diabetes and the Dewayne Murcer Foundation for cancer research and education.

Ray’s third book One Last Time: Goodbye to Yankee Stadium was released by HarperCollins Publishers on March 17, 2009, and has already reached # 1 on Amazon’s Best Seller List. The foreword was written by Reggie Jackson. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Boys and Girls Clubs, the DeWayne Murcer Foundation for Cancer Research and to charities to help the homeless.

Mr. Negron is also director of Community Relations for Spalding, America’s oldest baseball company, where he has been instrumental in supporting baseball in underprivileged areas with equipment donations and volunteer efforts from some of baseball’s biggest stars.


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Korean Shoppers Developing Taste for Bespoke Goods

The latest development in Korea's growing luxury goods market is a trend for custom-made products. Customers are looking to show off their individuality and differentiate themselves from people carrying uniform products. Experts say the luxury goods market is saturated and thus is evolving towards bespoke products.

Samsonite opened a branch in Cheongdam-dong in June where it offers made-to-order luggage and bags. The basic designs are fixed, but customers can choose color, fabrics and other materials to taste. The products are then hand crafted in Europe, taking six to nine weeks to finish.

Men's apparel brand Ermenegildo Zegna allows shoppers to personalize their suits by choosing details like buttons, creases and any of 450 fabrics. Customers can even have their name and the date of manufacture embroidered in the suit. Cheil Industries men's apparel brand Galaxy lets customers select fabrics from about 100 fabrics for their suits.

At Salvatore Ferragamo, men can select the outsole as well as the materials and colors of their shoes. Custom-made Ferragamo shoes are made at the company headquarters in Italy and cost 20 to 30 percent more than ready-made shoes. Demand for Ferragamo custom-made footwear has soared this year, to the point where about 10 percent of its products are custom-made. Two years ago it was just five percent.

Park Si-young from Ferragamo Korea said, "Custom-made products express the wearer's individuality since they can be made with various options, unlike ready-made products. Recently, the number of male customers has grown remarkably."

Experts expect the trend for custom-made products to spread to new areas. Samsung Electronics recently released a new mobile phone and allowed a select few customers to create a custom color for it. Lee Dong-hun of Samsung Economic Research Institute said, "As manufacturing systems become more flexible, custom-made products can be more easily realized. Companies that fail to keep up with these trends will be wiped out."


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