Some of Hong Kong’s biggest retailers have closed stores and frozen expansion plans in the past year in response to a drop in the number and spending power of their main customers, mainland Chinese tourists, a Reuters review of corporate filings shows. Six out of the 10 retailers reviewed are listed on the Hang Seng consumer goods sub index and their corporate filings show that, on average, Chinese tourists account for the majority of annual sales.
All the companies had enjoyed years of strong sales growth, mainly due to these visitors’ voracious appetite for everything from watches to jewellery to cosmetics. That enabled the firms to put up with some of the world’s most expensive rents: three years ago, Hong Kong’s prime Causeway Bay shopping area beat New York’s Fifth Avenue to become the world’s priciest retail real estate.
But the Chinese tourists are now going elsewhere, deterred by cross-border political tensions that erupted last year and protests against mainland shoppers. Some are taking advantage of weaker currencies and shopping in South Korea and Japan.
(Source: Jakarta Globe )