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
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