A Louis Vuitton store in Beijing's SKP shopping mall on December 5,2021 Photo: Xiong Xinyi/GT

French luxury giant LVMH saw its share price jump from 836 to 863 euros ($912-941) in a week alongside Chief Executive Officer Bernard Arnault's first visit to China since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the importance of the market to global luxury brands.

Arnault was spotted by netizens visiting retail stores of the company's subordinate brands, including Louis Vuitton, Dior and others, in a shopping mall in Beijing on Tuesday.

Louis Vuitton Chief Executive Officer Pietro Beccari also joined the trip, as did Delphine Arnault, Bernard's daughter who heads Christian Dior Couture, according to Bloomberg.

After the visit in Beijing, they headed to Chengdu, Southwestern China's Sichuan province, and also paid a visit to Shanghai before heading to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Friday, media reports said.

Although the Chinese economy is under pressure amid the sluggish global environment, the Chinese luxury market has shown greater performance compared to the global market, said Yang Qingshan, distinguished professor at the luxury research center under the University of International Business and Economics.

Global luxury brands have valued this market and want to "turn the market into a supporting point amid the sluggish global economy," Yang told the Global Times on Sunday.

According to a survey conducted from December 2022 to January 2023 by Ruder Finn and Consumer Search Group, 52 percent of Chinese mainland respondents intend to "spend more" on luxury items, well beyond the pre-pandemic figure of 44 percent. 

As the Chinese market becomes increasingly important to the global luxury brands, they are not only betting on China's first-tier cities, but more and more global players are starting to explore the second and third-tier cities in the country.

In 2021, the Gucci boutique at Taikoo Li, a shopping center in Chengdu, recorded the highest revenue among all of the company's stores around the world.

By 2030, China will account for 40 percent of the sales in the global luxury market, according to media reports.