4 Charts That Illustrate Indian Travelers' Growing Luxury Shopping Habits

The Chinese tourists resolved to buy luxury goods abroad may find themselves sharing the check-out line with Indian travelers at high-end department stores.

Like China, India is a developing economy with a myriad of people determined to impress their peers with symbols of wealth and status to deepen their standing in upper class society. This is evidenced in a recent YouGov and Time Inc. survey of more than 6,000 affluent travelers from 14 countries including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, U.K., Germany, France, UAE, India, China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Indonesia.

But shopping isn't the only essential activity Indian travelers care about during travel--they allocate 29% of their trip budgets to other activities such as sightseeing. Affluent
Chinese travelers are the highest country in terms of shopping spend allocation, with 31% of their trip budgets going to the latest fashions, electronics or classic souvenirs.

Survey respondents are among the top 10% of income earners in each country and multiple generations were represented, such as millennials who had the largest percentage of respondents indicating they take a trip specifically for a luxury shopping experience (32%). Millennials also trend above the global average for seeking out luxury shopping experiences while traveling (when those aren't the main purposes of a trip) and also for frequently buying luxury goods during a vacation that they probably wouldn't purchase at home.

Chart 1: Non-Americans spend nearly twice as much on shopping than Americans do while traveling.

Chart 2: Indian respondents accounted for the highest percentage of travelers (53%) who said they take trips specifically for luxury shopping, nearly 20 percentage points higher than China and 27 percentage points higher than Asia-Pacific as a whole.

Chart 3: More than any other respondents, Indian travelers also indicated that they frequently purchase luxury items while traveling that they probably wouldn't buy back home.

Chart 4: When luxury shopping isn't the main reason for a trip, Indian travelers are still one of the largest groups who seek out luxury goods abroad but the Chinese are by far the group that wants to shop the most.

Source: YouGov and Time Inc.