SINGAPORE: A majority of luxury industry executives are confident of seeing an increase in revenue from ultra high net worth (UHNW) individuals in the first quarter a new study has revealed.

The first Luxury Sentiment Survey Report, from the wealth intelligence firm Wealth-X, polled global senior luxury executives from various luxury sub-sectors and found that 80% expected revenues to rise during the period, with around one third anticipating increases of more than 10%.

Overall, 77% reported increased enquiries from UHNW customers and 64% believed that such customers would make more purchases.

Asia and North America were seen by participants as the territories most likely to have experienced the fastest revenue growth during the quarter. In particular, two thirds expected that Asia would contribute the largest quarterly growth in hospitality and services.

Most marketers (71%) were hoping to expand into new markets, while a similar proportion (76%) indicated that their clients were, for the most part, domestic rather than tourists.

In terms of reaching the UHNW audience, three quarters of respondents said they targeted them through events, while half indicated that more than 50% of their total marketing budget went on to UHNW marketing.

In addition, some 55% were planning to start targeting UHNW individuals or to increase their existing targeting of UHNW clients.

Two sectors were highlighted for revenue growth, with 87% of luxury marketers anticipating increases in yachts and private aviation.

"Despite the variety of conditions across different sectors of the luxury industry, the responses of the world's leading luxury brands are broadly similar," said Mykolas Rambus, Wealth-X CEO.

"More engagement and more targeting of UHNW individuals are expected to go hand in hand with better performance in the year ahead,"he concluded.

Data sourced from Wealth-X; additional content by Warc staff