Chinese luxury spending drops 19% during festival

Chinese people spent $6.9 billion overseas on luxury goods during the Spring Festival holiday (Jan 31 - Feb 6), a drop of 18.8 percent from last year, according to World Luxury Association.

And domestic sales of luxury goods were only $350 million, a 57.8-percent drop from 2013 and 80 percent drop from 2012.

The European area tops the destinations by recieving nearly $3.6 billion of total overseas spending during the festival.

Meanwhile the domestic luxury goods consumption also saw a sharp drop in five major cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chonagqing), standing at $350 milion, down 57.8 percent from the same period of last year and 80 percent from 2012.

Insiders said the results were due to the Chinese central government's cracking down on corruption, which led to dramatic decrease in government-paid junkets and officials accepting gifts.