Spending for travel tops saving for a rainy day
Hong Kong consumers are more than twice as willing as others in Asia to save money for travel but are less willing than others to save for a rainy day, a poll has shown.
The MasterCard survey on consumer purchasing priorities released yesterday shows that the top three reasons for saving in the next six months among consumers in the Asia-Pacific region is retirement, personal travel and investment.
It also ranks dining and entertainment, fashion and accessories and personal travel as the three most popular areas of spending.
The findings show that Hong Kong consumers have a particular liking for travel with 44 per cent of Hong Kong consumers ranking it as a reason for saving compared to the regional average of 20 per cent.
But only two in three Hong Kong consumers are saving for what the survey termed precautionary purposes compared to a regional average of about 71 per cent. One in three Hong Kong consumers said they planned to save less in the coming six months, while the regional average was 23 per cent. But the trimmed savings did not stem from a lack of thrift - two-thirds of these respondents said they could not save more because they did not earn enough.
Nevertheless the survey also showed that Hong Kong consumers were more willing to spend on non-essential items than others in the region. About 69 per cent of Hong Kong consumers said they would spend about the same or more on discretionary items, exceeding the regional average by close to 7 percentage points.
Hong Kong consumers also surpass their regional counterparts by 14 percentage points in spending on dining and entertainment, above other choices.
The MasterCard survey is published twice a year. The latest survey was conducted from March 23 to April 18 and involved 9,211 consumers from 21 markets in Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. Four hundred consumers in Hong Kong participated in the survey through face-to-face and telephone interviews.
