As witnessed in Japan, the Chinese tourist dollar (or yuan) can make or break a beauty business, boosting Shiseido’s sales to ¥763 billion for the nine months ended December, 31. But as Chinese tourists vote with their feet in favor of Japan, Hong Kong-based retailers are suffering.

Sa Sa International Holdings has revealed that sales during the first seven days of the Chinese New Year holiday period were down 20 percent this year, compared to last. Local retail sales plummeted 20 percent from 2015 figures, while same-store sales in Hong Kong and Macau dove 19 percent.

The perfumery chain attributed the loss to ‘a notable decrease in overall tourist arrivals in Hong Kong during this period, especially Mainland tourists.’ Arrivals from Mainland China dropped almost 13 percent to 920,777 for the seven days to February 14, 2016.

The average spend from Mainland tourists was down 9 percent, transactions dropped 18 percent and overall sales attributed to Chinese travellers were 26 percent lower.