花錢如流水 中國人把歐洲遊變成跨國購物大狂歡

La Roca del Vallès was once little more than a sleepy Catalan village (pop. 7,000) surrounded by farmland, 35 minutes northeast of Barcelona. Now, that farmland is the home of outlet mall La Roca Village, a purpose-built simulation of a Catalan town, packed with high-end outlet stores.

拉羅卡德爾瓦列斯曾經只是加泰羅尼亞區一個慵懶的小村莊（居民7000人）.這裏被農田環繞，距巴塞羅那35分鐘路程。而如今，拉o羅卡購物中心的商場就坐落在這片農田上。這裏特意模仿了加泰羅尼亞的小鎮風格，開設了許多高檔的名品打折商店。

Last year, La Roca Village attracted 3.3 million shoppers, mostly foreigners, which makes it the most visited tourist attraction in Barcelona—superseding even Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí’s epic and internationally famous Sagrada Familia cathedral.

去年，拉o羅卡購物中心吸引了330萬顧客，其中大部分是外國人，使它成了巴塞羅那訪問量最大的旅遊景點——甚至超過了加泰羅尼亞著名建築師安東尼奧o高迪的史詩之作——蜚聲全球的聖家族大教堂（SagradaFamilia cathedral）。

Travelers have always shopped, for handicrafts, unfamiliar foods, or silly t-shirts. But in recent years, as citizens of BRICS nations and other developing countries have begun to travel, vacation shopping has changed. For many newbie travelers, buying brand-name goods has become a central point of tourism, a way to participate in developed world consumerism and show the folks back home they’ve indeed been abroad.

一般來說，遊客都會購買手工藝品、異域風情的食品或是傻乎乎的T恤。不過最近幾年，隨着金磚四國和其他發展中國家颳起旅遊風，度假購物的方式也在發生改變。購買名牌商品已經成爲許多旅遊新軍旅行活動的重點。他們將此視爲感受發達國家用戶至上主義的途徑，還可以向家裏的親朋好友展示：他們確實出過國了。

The boom has been most notable among Chinese travelers, who’ve celebrated their new ability to globetrot with sights-and-malls bus trips across the U.S. and shopping-heavy versions of the old Grand Tour of Europe. Next year, Chinese travelers are expected to buy more luxury goods abroad than tourists from all other countries combined.

這種血拼熱情在中國遊客身上體現得最爲明顯。他們爲自己現在可以在美國的巴士之旅上看風景、逛商場，或是沿着古老的教育旅行路線環遊歐洲瘋狂購物而歡欣鼓舞。預計到明年，中國遊客購買的奢侈品的價值將超過世界上其他所有國家遊客的總和。不過購物旅遊遠不是中國獨有的現象，西班牙——尤其是巴塞羅那——給人們上了一堂示範課，讓人們知道來自發展中國家的遊客怎樣改變了旅遊業的面貌。

But shopping tourism is far from a Chinese phenomenon, and Spain in general—and Barcelona in particular —offers an object lesson in how visitor flows from developing countries have changed the face of tourism.

根據聯合國世界旅遊組織（World Tourism Organization）的一份新報告，2012年，在旅遊消費收入上，西班牙位居全球第二，歐洲以外的遊客在這個國家消費了11億美元。而在經濟學人智庫（Economist Intelligence Unit）和旅遊購物退稅公司環球藍聯（Global Blue）合作發佈的歐洲城市消費指數排行中，馬德里和巴塞羅那並列第二，僅次於倫敦。

Spain ranked second in the world in 2012 for revenue from tourism spending, according to a new report from the UN’s World Tourism Organization, with $1.1 billion spent on shopping in the country by visitors from outside the E.U. And Madrid and Barcelona were tied for second, behind London, in a shopping index ranking of European cities put together by the Economist Intelligence Unit and Global Blue, a tourism shopping tax refund company.

去年只有25萬中國遊客來到了西班牙，來自俄羅斯的遊客卻達到了160萬，比2012年增加了31.6%。名品特賣商Value Retail是拉o羅卡購物中心的所有者，它還在歐洲其他地方擁有8座購物村。公司的西班牙運營部主任、出生於紐約的邁克爾o戈登伯格說：“因爲這都是些非常全球化的品牌，也因爲新興市場正在崛起，有許多美妙的因素促成了我們的繁榮。爲什麼遊客都到歐洲來度假呢？是爲了看看文化和精緻生活的發源地。他們想要像歐洲人一樣生活。購買歐洲品牌，可以部分滿足他們的這種願望。”

While only 250,000 Chinese people visited Spain last year, 1.6 million Russians did, an increase of 31.6% over 2012.

當年，信孚銀行（Bankers Trust）向Value Retail的第一座購物中心——英國的比斯特購物村（Bicester Village）投資的時候，戈登伯格還在這家銀行的房地產投資部門工作。1996年，他27歲的時候加入了這家公司。

“Because brands are so global and because emerging markets are emerging, there are aspirational factors,” says Michael Goldenberg, the New York-born head of the Spanish operations of Value Retail, which owns the La Roca mall and eight others in Europe. “Why are they all coming to Europe on vacation? To see where culture and sophistication come from. And they want to live like Europeans. Part of that is fulfilled by buying brands.”

我們一邊在購物中心的中央大街上漫步，一邊聽着瘦削的戈登伯格給我們講解模仿加泰羅尼亞小鎮風格的建築細節。

Goldenberg was working in real estate investment banking at Bankers Trust when the firm invested in Value Retail’s first shopping village, Bicester Village in the U.K., and he joined the company in 1996, at age 27.

從政府風格的建築環繞着的中央廣場處，我們開始了參觀之旅【一家羅意威（Loewe）的名品折扣店就坐落於市政大廳的一樓】。隨後我們穿過了一個舒適的中產階級社區，來到整潔的工廠區。街道以鵝卵石或鋪路石鋪就，屋頂蓋滿了瓦片，建築的顏色近似於奶油色，而樓羣之間的廣場點綴着安東尼奧o高迪風格的雕塑。

As we walk down the central avenue of the mall, the lanky Goldenberg points out the architectural details that mimic small-town Catalonia.

這種建築上帶來的愉悅感讓人能夠感受到當地的文化氛圍。對於將大量旅遊時間花在購物中心裏的遊客而言，這一點也許至關重要。戈登伯格表示，這裏的顧客有60%都是遊客，他們平均在這裏要待上四個小時。Value Retail旗下的其他購物中心也會吸取當地的文化。科茨沃爾德附近的英國購物中心就在牛津市外，模仿了英國東南部的小村莊風情。而另一個靠近意大利帕爾馬的購物中心以威爾第歌劇爲主題。

We start our tour in the central plaza surrounded by government-style buildings (a Loewe outlet sits on the ground floor of the town hall), then pass through a comfortable bourgeois neighborhood and into a very tidy version of a factory zone. The streets are covered in cobble or large paving stones, the roofs are tiled, the colors tend toward the creams, and the plazas between the blocks feature sculptures in the style of Antoni Gaudí.

戈登伯格告訴我：“我們想讓這裏變得舒適。這可是度假。人們完全放鬆下來的時候纔會尋歡作樂。”

This architectural recreation offers the sensation of a local cultural experience, which may be key for visitors who are passing a sizable chunk of their vacation at the mall. Sixty percent of the shoppers are tourists and they spend an average of four hours here, Goldenberg says. Value Retail’s others malls also simulate the local culture: the English mall near the Cotsworlds, outside Oxford, mimics a village in southeastern England, while one near Parma, Italy is based on Verdi’s operas.

購物中心還設計了奢侈品培訓項目，幫助發展中國家的遊客輕鬆舒適地瀏覽高端品牌，避免他們在這些店鋪面前感到不安。

“We try to democratize luxury,” Goldenberg tells me as we walk through the industrial section of the town. “Notice all the doors are open? At a luxury store on Passeig de Gracia [Barcelona’s equivalent of Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue], the doorman sort of looks you over before he opens the door.”

在小鎮裏的工業區漫步時，戈登伯格告訴我：“我們想讓奢侈品變得平易近人。注意到了嗎？所有的門都是開着的。而在巴塞羅那的格拉西亞大道上（等同於曼哈頓的第五大道），奢侈品店的迎賓員會在拉開門之前仔細打量你一番。”

Value Retail identifies major cities with sophisticated locals and plenty of tourists, and then builds a mall far enough outside of town so as not to compete with the brands’ full-price city stores. In Barcelona, the mall is 25 miles outside the city; in London, it’s 75 miles.

Value Retail認爲，大城市有着世故的當地人和大量遊客，於是把購物中心建在離市區足夠遠的地方，以免與各品牌在市內的全價店搶生意。在巴塞羅那，購物中心距市區25英里；在倫敦，這個距離是75英里。

When it opened, many expected La Roca Village to fail. It was in the middle of nowhere and outlets were an unproven concept. The first years were indeed slow; 270,000 people came during the six months it was open in 1998, less than 10% of the number that visited in 2013.

拉o羅卡購物村開業時，許多人認爲它會垮掉。它位於偏僻的地區，而名品折扣店還是個沒有被證明過的概念。第一年的發展確實很慢，1998年開業後，半年內只有27萬遊客來到這裏，還不及2013年的十分之一。

But as outlets caught on in Europe and tourism in Barcelona boomed—7.6 million visitors stayed in the city last year, up from 2.5 million in 1993—so did the mall.

但隨着名品折扣店開始在歐洲流行，以及巴塞羅那的旅遊業開始蓬勃發展——1993年只接納了250萬遊客，而去年遊客數量已經達到760萬——購物中心也開始欣欣向榮。

The portion of La Roca’s shoppers who are tourists increased from 38% in 2007 to 60% today, and in 2009, the mall launched a bus service from downtown Barcelona. It now offers ten 20-euro round trips a day. A just-opened 30 million euro expansion led to the addition of 40 new stores at the mall. A recent job fair offering 300 jobs at the center attracted 1,500 aspirants. And Chinese tourists are beginning to come en masse: Barcelona got about 150,000 Chinese visitors last year, Goldenberg says, and 100,000 of them came to La Roca Village.

遊客在拉o羅卡購物中心全部顧客中所佔的比例從2007年的38%上升到如今的60%。2009年，這個購物中心開始提供往返於巴塞羅那市中心的巴士服務。如今，這輛巴士收費20歐元，每日往返10趟。Value Retail最近又向這裏投資了3,000萬歐元，購物中心因此增加了40家嶄新的門店。在最近的招聘會上，這裏提供了300個崗位，吸引了1,500名求職者。中國的遊客也開始蜂擁而來。戈登伯格表示，去年巴塞羅那總共接納了15萬中國遊客，其中有10萬造訪了拉o羅卡購物中心。

Goldenberg would not break out the Spanish mall’s sales, but he said the combined revenues in all Value Retail malls was 1.9 billion euros in 2013.

戈登伯格不願意透露西班牙購物中心的銷售額，不過他表示，Value Retail的所有購物中心在2013年的總收入是19億歐元。

The parent company is now taking its shopping experience to the developing nations that supply so many of its customers. In May, Value Retail opened its first mall in China, in Suzhou. In keeping with its tenets of local design and European aspirations, the architecture blends Chinese artisanship with a touch of Italian style.

如今，母公司Value Retail把它的購物體驗帶到了供應大量顧客的發展中國家。今年5月，Value Retail在中國蘇州建立了第一家購物中心。秉持着兼具本土化設計與歐洲風情的原則，購物中心的建築融合了中國工藝與意大利風情。