中国游客成英国经济新来源

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Britain comes at a time when Brand UK has never been more popular, particularly in China. As a consequence, a new survey says British shops could be on the verge of a shopping boom. Britain is already one of the world’s favourite shopping destinations, beaten only by consumer giants: the United States and China itself. But it might be about to get even better, as Chinese rapidly rising disposable income and a dramatic increase in the numbers Chinese travelling overseas translate into sales.

Sometimes it seems Britain’s streets are paved with tourists. Among the millions a new group is transforming an industry. Travellers from China now exceeding a 100 million a year, intent on extreme shopping in places like this.

"Every year Bicester Village is more popular with the Chinese. We grew 15 per cent last year. We have over 10,000 coaches of Chinese tourists every year and we’ll probably see a lot more this year," Anna Keddie, marketing director of Bicester Village, said.

Bicester Village is secretive about how much it makes from Chinese shoppers, but they’re big spenders. According to a survey by marketing specialists Wei Consultants, three quarters of Chinese consumers in the UK bought at least one luxury item worth more than $800 dollars, while one in five bought three or more.

"Here you know the luxury brand is quite cheap and also they have more ranges which you can choose."

"What do you think of it?’ ‘A little bit boring for me, yeah."

"You will feel a little more comfortable and more like shopping in the home."

"Because the quality is better."

Last year Chinese incomes rose around seven per cent, according to government figures; the highest pay rises on the economically hot eastern seaboard. Britain keen to share in their success and their buying power.

"We can measure it if you like through the celebration of Chinese New Year. An interesting but lesser know fact that in America during Thanksgiving they spend $50 million dollars in terms of restaurants and bookings for Thanksgiving. The figure for China in Chinese New Year is a hundred billion dollars, so that gives you a sense of who knows best how to Party," UK PM David Cameron said.

This place is a measure of brand UK’s popularity around the world. Of the six million people who came shopping here last year half of them were from overseas and half of that number, one and a half million, were from China.

The UK government aware it was losing out to the tune of around $1.5 billion dollars in Chinese spending, recently loosened its visa regulations. A smart move some would say, as a recent report from the duty free payments service Global Blue said, even before the change Chinese shoppers accounted for 20 per cent of all tax-free spending in Britain.