The UK’s trade body representing luxury, Walpole, have released their annual report reviewing the luxury landscape in the nation’s capital – covering hospitality, retail, fine dining, and more.

London remains Europe’s most powerful luxury hub, a city that attracts wealth, investment and the world’s highest-spending visitors. Their contribution is significant not just to the capital but to the entire UK luxury sector, which generates £81bn in value and supports 450,000 jobs.

TONG contributed proprietary research to the publication, taking direct insights from a specially commissioned survey to understand how this vital sector of London’s economy can both attract and best serve a Chinese customer base.

After several years of turbulence across the global travel sector, Chinese outbound tourism is once again firmly on an upward trajectory. VisitBritain projections for 2025’s inbound travel of Chinese tourists to the UK are expected to be higher than the previous year, making it the fifth largest visitor market and adding a potential £1.6bn to the UK’s economy. 

To help UK businesses understand the opportunity presented by the accelerating return of Chinese tourists, TONG partnered with Walpole as part of the State of London Luxury 2025 publication to explore the motivations, expectations, and behaviours of today’s luxury Chinese consumer. Speaking to more than 200 Chinese travellers each with a £10k+ budget (excluding flights), the research sought to explore the preferences in luxury experiences, brands and locations for this much-desired but little-understood group. While our research focused primarily on London, the findings provide valuable insights for luxury brands, hotels, restaurants, and more who are looking to tailor their offering to the Chinese visitor.

The findings reveal that Chinese luxury travellers’ behaviours have evolved in meaningful ways since the pandemic, from what they seek, to how they plan, to what they share. These shifts open up significant opportunities for UK brands and cultural institutions to reimagine how they connect with one of the world’s most influential luxury audiences. The question now is not whether an opportunity exists, but how effectively businesses can respond to it.