China’s reduced import duties are the latest catalyst in changing overseas consumption trends

In the early years of Chinese outbound tourism, buying luxury goods abroad was regarded as a key component of overseas travel. This could be attributed not only to the fact that it was a means of asserting one’s prestige at home in China – through proof that the buyer was able to travel to access genuine designer items from outside China, or buy them as gifts for friends and relatives – but also because such purchases were typically far cheaper than they were at home, on account of China’s high taxes on luxury products at the time.

However, with Chinese outbound tourism having become far more widespread (2017 saw 145 million global border crossings made by Mainland Chinese passport holders), overseas shopping has lost much of the allure it once had, since purchases that serve simply as ‘proof’ of international travel no longer command the bragging rights they once did[…]

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Image: Galeria V. Emanuele, Milan by Veselina Dzhingarova Source: Flickr Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)