The Middle East hasn’t lost all its luster. Yoox Net-a-Porter recently agreed to sell a stake to the founder of Dubai’s Emaar Properties PJSC to help the online distributor of brands like Armani expand in the region. In Qatar, the world’s richest country per capita, residents and citizens spent an average of $4,000 per month on luxury goods and services in 2015, up from $2,500 a year earlier, according to a study for American Express Co. and Mawarid Group.
Mauricio Manrique, a salesman for Richemont’s Montblanc brand at the Dubai Mall, says the downturn is probably just another blip. In his six years working there, whenever sales looked like they were weakening, Russians would arrive and snatch up $460 ballpoint pens or wallets.
Moving his hand up and down like a wave to illustrate how business rises and falls, the salesman says, “I cannot say this is a trend.”