Trade

According to the 2011 Fondazione de Altagamma’s study, the total luxury market in Spain is estimated as 680 thousand millions of Euros. The 28% of this entire amount corresponds to “The Personal Luxury Market”, which means fashion, accessories, fine watchmaking and jewellery.

Passeig de Gràcia. Barcelona-touristguide.com

In the centre of Barcelona, international luxury brands have their own shops. Passeig de Gracia is a central street right next to Plaça Catalunya and it is well-known due to the fact that there are famous luxury shops. Moreover, it represents an attraction for tourists with high purchasing power.

The manager of the brand Burberry in Barcelona says that “only because it is Barcelona, there are more tourists than local buyers”. In fact, other executives as Sebastián Reyes, the sales supervisor of Tiffany in Barcelona, claims that “large brands wouldn’t survive in Barcelona without tourism”. Furthermore, the market is in good health: “our sales are increasing, and as a consequence, so are our benefits. We are growing year after year”, assures Reyes. These testimonies show that the sector’s tendency is totally opposed to the general context. “It is true that our brand is expanding”, affirms Burberry’s manager. On the other hand, she reveals that “the largest contingents of buyers are Russian and Japanese.”

Tiffany Shop in Passeig de Gràcia. Nelso.com

According to some experts, Barcelona has charming for foreigners as a result of its good weather conditions and purchase incentives: “some type of luxurious clothes can be up to 40% cheaper here than in their origin countries”, affirms Miguel Ángel Solá, the manager of Luxury News. “What is more, the sun and the quality of life also helps”. In addition to some sectors that are at their peak, such as fashion and jewellery,  there has been a boom in expensive car sales this year: Solá assures that “Bentley has sold a 50% more of cars than the previous year and there has also been a rise in Ferrari, Maserati and Aston Martin’s sales”. From May 9th to the 19th the Barcelona International Motor Show brought more than 700.000 visitors and it kept the same sales of high class cars than in previous years.

 Barcelona International Motor Show. By Economia Ciutadana