‘Xin nian kuai le’ from Heathrow

2013-02-08 — /travelprnews.com/ — Heathrow’s preparation for Chinese New Year is in full swing as the airport gears up for the annual influx of Chinese passengers travelling to London to celebrate the national holiday

As a commercially important customer for Heathrow, Chinese passengers are responsible for around 25% of luxury spend at the airport despite representing only 0.7% of passenger volume.

Heathrow’s retail team work hard to cater specifically for Chinese passengers by producing leaflets in Mandarin to help them navigate through the terminal complete with retail offers. Insight into the purchasing behaviour of customers at the airport shows that Chinese passengers respond particularly well to leaflets and spend a significant amount of time online planning their luxury shopping experience in advance.

The airport’s dedicated customer service team has a number of Mandarin speakers who are well versed in the products which appeal most to Chinese passengers. Iconic British brands such as Burberry and Mulberry perform particularly well at Heathrow as do luxury watches. Heathrow’s Chinese passengers are keen to purchase the ‘best of British’ on UK soil enabling them to have access to the full cultural experience of the brand. Together with the range of luxury brands available at Heathrow and lower price point offered, the UK’s only hub airport is an important destination for Chinese passengers looking to avoid the luxury goods tax incurred in China.

This year Heathrow has designed a Chinese experience for all its passengers offering:

• traditional Chinese music
• dragon dancing events
• customer service teams in traditional Chinese dress
• festive foods sampling of dim sum and fortune cookies
• taster classes in the art of ‘Zhezhi’ allowing passengers to create beautiful paper designs as a souvenir of their journey.

Muriel Zingraff, Retail Director at Heathrow said;

‘We are passionate about creating memorable experiences and celebrating worldwide events that are important to our passengers. While Chinese passengers represent a relatively small proportion of our total passenger volume, these customers are extremely important to us and have very definite ideas about their luxury brand experience which we are delighted to provide at Heathrow.’

Notes to editors

Notes to editors

1. Heathrow’s shopping and restaurants have been rated by passengers as the best in the world with Skytrax for three successive years
2. In July this year, Heathrow experienced the highest every customer satisfaction score –
3. Heathrow’s monthly survey asks passengers to rate their experience on a scale of 1-5, where 5 is excellent and 4 very good. In July, arrivals scored a record 4.3 and departures scored 4.22, the second highest departures score ever and a record for July.

Contact information

Name Heathrow Airport media centre
Telephone +44 (0)20 8745 7224
Email media_centre@heathrow.com

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