Qatar is World’s Fastest Growing Luxury Market
According to a new report on ‘Global Luxury Hotspots’ by Ledbury Research, the Middle-Eastern sovereign state is the world’s fastest growing luxury market.
Qatar has topped a new list of the world’s top 20 “fast-growing, frontier markets” for the luxury industry.
In fact the Middle East dominated the top three spots with the United Arab Emirates taking second place in the survey and Saudi Arabia ranked third
There’s plenty of focus on the small Arabian Peninsula country, which has just 2 million inhabitants, of which only 250,000 are citizens. Set to host the Football World Cup in 2022, Qatar also recently held the World Luxury Expo.
The country owns majority stakes in Italian fashion brand Valentino as well as the landmark department stores Harrods and Printemps in London and Paris. Meanwhile Qatar is also currently developing its own luxury label, Qela.
“Qataris are actually the biggest buyers of goods in the Middle East. But they often shop in Dubai,” explains Nicola Ko, senior luxury analyst at Ledbury Research. “The Mall of Qatar is currently being built however, and with infrastructure to be improved in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup, the luxury industry has significantly more potential to grow in the country,” she added.