This week Time Inc. and YouGov, a U.K.-based market research firm, released their 10th annual Survey of Affluence and Wealth, which polls more than 6,000 wealthy consumers worldwide.
While I have attended the survey press conference in years past, I didn’t make it this year. My newfound addiction to Mad Men is keeping me up late at night, making it difficult to make it to early-morning appointments.
But, I did nab some time on the phone with YouGov managing partner Cara David on Wednesday afternoon to discuss one of the more interesting points in the survey: Consumers continue to be more interested in spending their money on experiences than on things.
[two_third]A MasterCard executive made this same point during her presentation at the Global Retailing Conference this week in Tucson. (As a side note, I know that there is a disparity between the data from the U.S. Commerce Department on jewelry sales that we reported on earlier this week and that which MasterCard presented at the Tucson conference. I am looking into this for next week.)[/two_third][one_third_last][/one_third_last]
The Time Inc./YouGov survey, which polls affluent consumers about their spending plans for the year and then compares it what was spent last year, indicates that spending on travel will increase more than any other category in 2015. Spending on dining out/out-of-home entertainment also is expected to rise.
