Consumer consumption and the luxury goods market in China has long believed by most industries to become one of the largest markets in the world. Just how large? According to Robert Polet, the CEO of the Gucci Group, “China will replace the U.S. as the world's second largest luxury goods market this year.” His comment, which was quoted in the People’s Daily newspaper, echoed statistics worldwide which have substantiated this trend. “Last year, the wealthy from Chinese mainland purchased one quarter of the world’s luxury goods.” Indeed, in 2009, consumer growth in China overtook the United States as the second largest luxury market, behind Japan, far sooner than expected. With the world’s second largest economy, China is estimated to number over 18,000 billionaires, 440,000 multi-millionaires, and an emerging middle class that will top 250 million by 2010.
First tier Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have seen the bulk of the commercial investment, as these cities drive growth, both financially and symbolically for the rest of the country. More importantly, Reed Exhibitions’ long tenure in China indicates that the consumer spending in China is largely internally driven, with a consumer culture that constantly seeks out the brands, products and ideas that have not only been proven in a foreign market, but that are strongly in tune with the local and cosmopolitan values of an emerging generation of independent-minded consumers.