Louis Vuitton is making a pitch to consumers in a spot no Western brand has ventured before: the National Museum of China.

The French luxury giant, celebrating its 20th year in China, is unveiling special summer exhibit titled “Voyages,” which features the brand’s historical luggage and handbags, in one of the country’s most renowned museums. Having just opened its doors after an epic-long three-year renovation, the museum is one of the most highly-sought spots for the country’s tourists.

That makes it a perfect place for Louis Vuitton, which is playing off the current travel craze hitting China.

China’s consumers are set to catapult the country’s tourism market past Japan’s by 2020, according to Boston Consulting Group. Last year, China’s outbound tourism market alone was worth 1.5 trillion yuan of revenues, filling the pockets of airline and hotel industries.

The upscale brand, owned by luxury house LVMH Moet Hennessey Louis Vuitton, is eager to tap into the travel boom. China, where the taste for luxury goods has driven sales for countless high-end labels, is one of Louis Vuitton’s key growth markets. Travelers, who likely have higher disposable incomes than the average stationary low-income worker, are the brand’s target audience.

LV’s museum partnership also fits into China’s recent art rage. According to a report commissioned by the European Fine Art Foundation, China is now the world’s second-largest market for art and antiques. The global art market was estimated at around $60 billion in 2010, of which China accounted for 23%.

Other luxury brands are trying out the artistic pitch in China too. Christian Dior launched a multimedia photo exhibit in Shanghai in mid-May, showing off its Lady Dior line of handbags. Earlier this year, U.S. designer Diane von Furstenberg rolled out her “Journey of a Dress” exhibit in Beijing’s 798 art district.

Many question whether luxury brands have the credibility to position themselves as art. Louis Vuitton took a little heat, when it opened an art gallery in its Champs Elysees flagship store, showing off an exhibit of nude black and white women spelling out and “L” and a “V” with their bodies.

The French company also hit a rocky patch in China earlier in May, when Shanghai’s city government required the company to demolish one of its advertisements—a 65-foot-tall suitcase—that violated the city’s outdoor ad regulations.

Louis Vuitton hopes this new suitcase endeavor will result in a little less baggage.

– Laurie Burkitt. Follow her on Twitter @lburkitt

The restructuring of the economy and resulting efficiency gains have contributed to a more than tenfold increase in GDP since 1978.

In 2009, China announced that by 2020 it would reduce carbon intensity 40% from 2005 levels.

The People’s Republic of China is the world’s second largest economy after the United States by both nominal GDP ($5 trillion in 2009) and by purchasing power parity ($8.77 trillion in 2009).

Available energy is insufficient to run at fully installed industrial capacity, and the transport system is inadequate to move sufficient quantities of such critical items as coal.

Technology, labor productivity, and incomes have advanced much more rapidly in industry than in agriculture.

The technological level and quality standards of its industry as a whole are still fairly low, notwithstanding a marked change since 2000, spurred in part by foreign investment.

The market-oriented reforms China has implemented over the past two decades have unleashed individual initiative and entrepreneurship, whilst retaining state domination of the economy.

The ministry made the announcements during a press conference held in Xiamen on the upcoming United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Forum and the 14th China International Fair for Investment and Trade.

According to the ministry, China’s ODI grew by 1.1 percent from a year earlier to $56.53 billion, which includes investment of $47.8 billion in non-financial sectors worldwide, up 14.2 percent year-on-year.

China is expected to have 200 million cars on the road by 2020, increasing pressure on energy security and the environment, government officials said yesterday.

Although China is still a developing country with a relatively low per capita income, it has experienced tremendous economic growth since the late 1970s.

Despite initial gains in farmers’ incomes in the early 1980s, taxes and fees have increasingly made farming an unprofitable occupation, and because the state owns all land farmers have at times been easily evicted when croplands are sought by developers.

China is the world’s largest producer of rice and wheat and a major producer of sweet potatoes, sorghum, millet, barley, peanuts, corn, soybeans, and potatoes.

Due to improved technology, the fishing industry has grown considerably since the late 1970s.

Coal is the most abundant mineral (China ranks first in coal production); high-quality, easily mined coal is found throughout the country, but especially in the north and northeast.

There are large deposits of uranium in the northwest, especially in Xinjiang; there are also mines in Jiangxi and Guangdong provs.

In addition, implementation of some reforms was stalled by fears of social dislocation and by political opposition, but by 2007 economic changes had become so great that the Communist party added legal protection for private property rights (while preserving state ownership of all land) and passed a labor law designed to improve the protection of workers’ rights (the law was passed amid a series of police raids that freed workers engaged in forced labor).

There are railroads to North Korea, Russia, Mongolia, and Vietnam, and road connections to Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Myanmar.

Here is the original post:
Louis Vuitton’s Intrepid Effort to Court China’s Tourists