Swiss luxury watch manufacturers eager to welcome back Chinese tourists
Switzerland's major luxury watch brands are cautiously optimistic that Chinese tourists will boost sales this year, if they return to Europe in large numbers after the easing of domestic COVID-19 restrictions, Channel News Asia reports.
Swiss luxury watch manufacturers eager to welcome back Chinese tourists
The Economics of Geography

Swiss luxury watch manufacturers eager to welcome back Chinese tourists

Photo: AFP/Philippe Lopez
Eurasia 04/04/2023 13:21

Switzerland's major luxury watch brands are cautiously optimistic that Chinese tourists will boost sales this year, if they return to Europe in large numbers after the easing of domestic COVID-19 restrictions, Channel News Asia reports.

"Exports to China, a key market for watchmakers, contracted by 13.6 per cent in 2022 due to Beijing's zero-COVID policy and the surge in infections when it was lifted at the end of the year. However, exports began to rebound in February - up 8.2 per cent year-on-year, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry," the news site writes.

"China will regain a positive dynamic," the federation's president Jean-Daniel Pasche, told AFP at the industry's annual Watches and Wonders trade fair in Geneva, where 48 brands such as Rolex, Cartier and Patek Philippe were showing off their latest creations, it adds.
Photo: AFP/Fred Dufour
With China reopening, many financial analysts have sharply raised their growth forecasts for the luxury sector as a whole in 2023.

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