A report from travel retail research and commercial development specialist CiR indicates that international travellers from China’s tier two and tier three cities – of which there are more than 200 – will soon have a major impact on the travel retail landscape.

CiR’s latest nationality report – out this week – reveals that shopping is an integral part of the travel/airport experience for 83% of Chinese travellers from these cities among which are Hangzhou, Nanjin, Wuhan and Xiamen (pictured below). Meanwhile three in every four people from this key travelling group expect to increase their spending on shopping over the next two years.

The report suggests that travel retail will see a huge benefit from this group as it also reveals that 70% of travellers are planning to buy at the airport and that more than 50% of those who do make a purchase will actually go on to trade up.

CiR Managing Director, Garry Stasiulevicuis comments: ‘This report provides a fresh and very insightful perspective on the Chinese traveller. We’ve focused on travellers from the tier two and tier three cities as we know this is where the next wave of growth will come from in terms of Chinese spend in our channel.”

Second and third tier cities are now being eyed by several airports and travel retailers. In an exclusive interview with TRBusiness LS Travel Retail Chief Operating Officer Emmanuel de Place, recently said: “Growing very fast are Chinese travellers from second tier cities. They are not the richest Chinese who are travelling… and this is a big change. They are not looking at all the same kinds of products so it requires real adaptation of our merchandising, our offer and our concept.”

Meanwhile, Sydney Airport has revealed plans to expand its route network to serve several secondary cities in China this year, underlining its belief in this market as a future traffic driver.

Stasiulevicuis adds: “The burgeoning middles classes of these +200 cities are travelling more and have a great desire to shop while travelling. We’ve researched shoppers across seven (product) categories and in all cases more than half of them are spending more now than two years ago, with a clear indication this trend will continue.”

The report also provides perspectives on the evolving attitudes and behaviours of Chinese shoppers including opinions and barriers to purchase for non-buyers. The analysis of purchasing behaviour across the seven categories of Alcohol, Beauty, Confectionery, Fashion & Accessories, Jewellery, Tobacco, plus cross-category analysis offers benchmarking across DF&TR.

For further information about this report contact: [email protected] or [email protected].