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Shanghai: a shopping mecca for overseas travelers
7/4/2004 17:33


A growing number of foreigners consider Shanghai a paradise for purchasing commodities. As a result, shopping has become a major part of their travel schedules, the Jiefang Daily reported today.
Last year, a total of 3.19 million overseas people traveled in Shanghai, bringing in revenues of US$2.053 billion, with per capita spending reaching US$643, nearly one-fourth of which was spent on food and shopping.
"We organized 100,000 Japanese tourists to Shanghai last year, and most of them are females bent on shopping in the city," said a spokesman with a Japanese travel agency.
The Shanghai Friendship Store, specifically designed for foreigners, welcomed three luxury passenger liners in the first three months of the year, with more than 1,000 European and Americans travelers of one liner spending a total of 360,000 yuan in the store.
Expatriates settling in the city have become the main clients for imported goods at local high-end department stores and supermarkets.
"Three out of ten customers are from overseas, with more than 40 percent of the customers in our food supermarket foreigners," said a spokesman with the Shanghai Hongqiao Friendship Shopping Center.
Each foreigner currently spends an average of more than 300 yuan every time, double that of several years before, and 10 percent of our VIP guests are from overseas. They spend nearly 80,000 yuan per capita annually, the spokesman pointed out.
The rapid development of the local business market and an improved shopping environment are the main reasons for a growing number of overseas people to shop in the city, said an industry analyst.
Per capita business space in Shanghai reached 1.2 square meters last year, nearly the same as that in developed countries.


 Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news