Hey, big spender

International business consultancy groups pay great attention to developments in global wealth and luxury markets. As yet, however, the Eastern Mediterranean region has not been researched or measured against other luxury markets, and, presently, studies of the Middle East and North Africa focus on trends in the Gulf Cooperation Council states. Given the widening divergence between the rosy economies of the GCC and the gloomy ones of the Levant, it will be of little value for Lebanese luxury vendors to know that consulting firm Bain & Co estimates the regional luxury goods markets to be worth 6.3 billion euros ($8.37 billion), or 3 percent of the global market for luxury goods.  According to Bain, over 40 percent of the 6.3 billion euros are generated in the United Arab Emirates alone, which together with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain account for over 90 percent of the MENA region’s spending on