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

After keeping its currency tightly linked to the US dollar for years, China in July 2005 revalued its currency by 2 % against the US dollar and moved to an exchange rate system that references a basket of currencies.

The government vowed to continue reforming the economy and emphasized the need to increase domestic consumption in order to make China less dependent on foreign exports for GDP growth in the future.

China is also the second largest trading nation in the world and the largest exporter and second largest importer of goods.
The PRC government’s decision to permit China to be used by multinational corporations as an export platform has made the country a major competitor to other Asian export-led economies, such as South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Some economists believe that Chinese economic growth has been in fact understated during much of the 1990s and early 2000s, failing to fully factor in the growth driven by the private sector and that the extent at which China is dependent on exports is exaggerated.

The country is one of the world’s largest producers of a number of industrial and mineral products, including cotton cloth, tungsten, and antimony, and is an important producer of cotton yarn, coal, crude oil, and a number of other products.

China has acquired some highly sophisticated production facilities through trade and also has built a number of advanced engineering plants capable of manufacturing an increasing range of sophisticated equipment, including nuclear weapons and satellites, but most of its industrial output still comes from relatively ill-equipped factories.

Over the years, large subsidies were built into the price structure, and these subsidies grew substantially in the late 1970s and 1980s.

China now ranks as the fifth largest global investor in outbound direct investment (ODI) with a total volume of $56.5 billion, compared to a ranking of 12th in 2008, the Ministry of Commerce said on Sunday.

“The growth rate (for ODI) in the next few years will be much higher than previous years,” Shen said, without elaborating.

China reiterated the nation’s goals for the next decade – increasing market share of pure-electric and plug-in electric autos, building world-competitive auto makers and parts manufacturers in the energy-efficient auto sector as well as raising fuel-efficiency to world levels.

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.

Livestock raising on a large scale is confined to the border regions and provinces in the north and west; it is mainly of the nomadic pastoral type.

Growing domestic demand beginning in the mid-1990s, however, has forced the nation to import increasing quantities of petroleum.

China is among the world’s four top producers of antimony, magnesium, tin, tungsten, and zinc, and ranks second (after the United States) in the production of salt, sixth in gold, and eighth in lead ore.

Major industrial products are textiles, chemicals, fertilizers, machinery (especially for agriculture), processed foods, iron and steel, building materials, plastics, toys, and electronics.

As part of its continuing effort to become competitive in the global marketplace, China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001; its major trade partners are the United States, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Germany.

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Louis Vuitton’s Intrepid Effort to Court China’s Tourists