Bad news for Japan’s retailers as Chinese tourists cut back on buying

After propping up sales for overseas retailers over the past decade with a shopping-driven tourism agenda, Chinese visitors are no longer returning home with suitcases bulging like before.

A new survey by consultancy Oliver Wyman shows Chinese tourist numbers and holiday expenditure continuing to rise last year, even as shopping during overseas travel dropped 17 percent from a year earlier.

The average Chinese tourist spent about 6,705 yuan ($986) on shopping when traveling, down from 8,050 yuan in 2015. But overall holiday spending — including on hotels and sightseeing — rose 3.5 percent to 20,317 yuan from 19,635 yuan, according to the survey of 2,000 travelers from the mainland.

The sea change in spending habits is dealing a blow to retailers from Parisian department stores to Japanese duty-free operators and Hong Kong jewelers, but bigger numbers of wealthier Chinese may create other opportunities for leisure and entertainment operators in popular overseas destinations.

“Businesses globally have to adjust their strategy to think about how to capture the new Chinese tourist dollar,” said Oliver Wyman’s Shanghai-based partner, Hunter Williams. “It’s less about the outlet mall now and more about the national park.”

One reason for the change is the easier access to foreign goods in mainland China due to a booming $60 billion cross-border e-commerce market.

Imported items can now be ordered online and delivered in as quickly as a day, often exempt from taxes levied on goods from store shelves.