Middle East Claims Crown As Fastest Growing Luxury Hotspot
According to a new report from Ledbury Research, Qatar can claim to being the fastest growing luxury market globally, making it one to watch for all brands in 2014.
The Global Luxury Hotspots report reveals the top three fastest growing luxury markets to be:
- Qatar
- UAE
- Saudi Arabia
Qatar
Having just hosted the latest World Luxury Expo, Qatar has been impossible to ignore in the global luxury scene. With Italian label Valentino, British icon Harrods and French department store Printemps under Qatari ownership as well as a home-grown luxury brand, Qela, luxury awareness is high in the country. However the luxury market in Qatar made up just 0.2% of the global market in 2012.
Nicola Ko, senior luxury analyst at Ledbury Research explains, “Qataris are actually the biggest buyers of goods in the Middle East. But they often shop in Dubai; the Dubai-Doha air journey is currently the 7th most popular international route in the world. The Mall of Qatar is currently being built however, and with infrastructure to be improved in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup, the luxury industry has significantly more potential to grow in the country.”
The Rise Of Africa’s Luxury Market
Africa is another luxury hotspot to watch. Increasingly rising to the top of many brands’ growth agendas, luxury opportunities are expanding beyond the continent’s Northern countries such as Morocco and Egypt, to those in the South. Nigeria ranks 6th in the list of Global Luxury Hotspots. With 32,000 millionaires who frequently travel abroad to shop due to the limited selection of brands at home, the sub-saharan country is desperate for international luxury brands. Ko expands, “Nigeria is a frontier market, and male consumers there are hugely aspirational – at this stage, demand for luxury is mostly to signify status. As a result, we’ve seen Nigeria amongst the largest export markets for champagne and cognac in the world.”
These insights are part of Ledbury Research’s latest Global Luxury Hotspots report. Using a proprietary model, the report unveils the Top 20 fast-growing, frontier markets where the potential to develop is high for the luxury industry. In addition to data on those 20 markets, the report provides in-depth profiles on some of the top ranked countries.
