Better Economy Spurs Ultra-Wealthy to Spend More on Travel, Dining and Wine, but Appetite Cools for Jewelry and Handbags

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Jun 4, 2013) - For its 2013 State Of The Luxury Industry report, the Luxury Institute surveyed pentamillionaire consumers with net worth of at least $5 million and minimum annual household income of $200,000 to learn about current preferences and future spending on luxury goods and services for the remainder of 2013. Respondents also shared evaluations of the overall luxury market.

One-third of pentamillionaires plan to step up spending on leisure travel in the second half of 2013, making hotels, airlines and cruise operators big beneficiaries of additional spending by America's wealthiest shoppers. Restaurants are poised for a pick-up, too, with 20% of ultra-wealthy consumers planning to spend "more" or "much more" on dining out in the final six months of the year, and 19% also pouring more dollars into wine.

Additional categories seeing significant upcoming spending interest are health & fitness (17%) and vacation real estate (17%).

Rebounding home values and the surging stock market are not spreading cheer or riches universally. More than 80% of pentamillionaires say luxury goods are less important in the current economic environment. Jewelry sales especially may be under some pressure, with 25% of the ultra-wealthy saying they will spend less or much less through the remainder of 2013. Handbags are the focus of planned spending cutbacks by 20% of those surveyed.

"Even among the wealthiest consumers, luxury goods and services are considered less important in today's economy," says Luxury Institute CEO Milton Pedraza. "Luxury brands can capture these increasingly discerning ultra-wealthy consumers by providing unrivaled quality, craftsmanship and service."

About Luxury Institute (www.LuxuryInstitute.com)
The Luxury Institute is the objective and independent global voice of the high net-worth consumer. The Institute conducts extensive and actionable research with wealthy consumers about their behaviors and attitudes on customer experience best practices. In addition, we work closely with top-tier luxury brands to successfully transform their organizational cultures into more profitable customer-centric enterprises. Our Luxury CRM Culture consulting process leverages our fact-based research and enables luxury brands to dramatically Outbehave as well as Outperform their competition. The Luxury Institute also operates LuxuryBoard.com, a membership-based online research portal, and the Luxury CRM Association, a membership organization dedicated to building customer-centric luxury enterprises.