The rich in Asia keep spending regardless of an uncertain economy or the SARS-scarred environment, with the most extravagant elite in Hong Kong and Tokyo, said the findings of a global market research company yesterday.
The Synovate survey, covering the top 20 percent of society in terms of those with the most money to spend, found there are nearly 13 million of these people with a combined annual household income of US$961.1 billion.
From July last year to June this year, they purchased almost 12 million cars, made 8 million business trips and 6 million leisure trips, spend 67 million nights at hotels and 4 billion hours on the Internet, according to results published in The Business Times.
The average household income per annum of respondents was US$98,600 in Hong Kong, US$98,300 in Tokyo, US$53,400 in Singapore, US$44,100 in Kuala Lumpur and US$38,900 in Bangkok.
Business travelers continued to jet around with the figure of 6.3 percent remaining constant in the year surveyed.
"The Singaporean rich are not as extravagant as those in Hong Kong or Tokyo," Steve Garton, media director at Synovate Hong Kong was quoted as saying.
"Tokyo, for instance, is the only mass market for designer goods -- over there, it is about upgrading, about multiple ownership of high-end items," he noted.
Only about 18 percent of the Singaporean wealthy have mobile phones with Internet-access functions compared with 23 percent in Kuala Lumpur and 67 percent in Tokyo.
When it comes to automobiles, 38.5 percent of Hong Kong's rich own one, compared with 65.4 percent of Tokyo's elite. Meanwhile, 52.9 percent of wealthy Singaporeans, 77.7 percent of Bangkok's affluent and 92.3 percent of the upper-crust in Kuala Lumpur own at least one automobile, the Synovate survey revealed.
Some 6.7 percent of Hong Kong's rich plan to buy a car within the next year, compared with 7.5 percent of those queried in Tokyo and 9.6 percent of the wealthy in Singapore.
More than 220,000 interviews were conducted across the Asia-Pacific region.
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