Asia’s wealthy are spending more money on luxury travel and less on financial and real estate investments, reported media intelligence website CampaignAsia.com this past week.
These are the findings from the latest Ipsos PAX survey of 20,000 affluent Asians carried out in 11 different countries in the region: Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia and Japan. The study, carried out by media research firm Ipsos MediaCT, charts the newest trends in Asia relating to luxury consumption.
One of the findings is that Asia’s affluent are traveling more for business, as the proportion of people who have had three or more business trips rose from 5.7 percent to 6.4 percent. The proportion of rich Asians flying business or first class has also increased from 2.5 percent to 2.7 percent.
Rich Asians are also vacationing more, with 36 percent of respondents flying at least once, up from 35 percent last year. The number of those flying at least three times a year also rose to 7.1 percent from 6.7 percent. Asia’s wealthy are also increasingly treating themselves to business or first class when they travel for leisure, at 2.7 percent, up from 2.1 percent last year.
More Asians are buying laptops or notebooks, with the proportion of ownership up from 56 to 59 percent year on year. More impressive is the number of Asians who own smartphones, registering a rise from 32.8 percent last year to 49.5 percent this year.
But more Asians are eschewing financial products, attributed to a lack of trust in the current economic climate, with the proportion of those investing in stock, securities or bonds falling from 32.5 percent to 28.6 percent.
The percentage of respondents who own properties has also fallen to 50 from 53 last year. The proportion of those who have invested in real estate (other than the house they live in) also fell from 19.1 percent to 18.2 percent.
The 2012 Wealth Report by Swiss private bank Julius Baer, released last month suggested that the number of super-rich in Asia is set to reach 2.67 million people by 2015 with a net worth of an estimated $16.7 trillion.
The article by Campaign Asia-Pacific: http://www.campaignasia.com/Article/318641,asia-pacific8217s-affluent-are-flying-more-buying-more-investing-less-ipsos-pax.aspx
EW
