Networker of wealthy taps into Chinese tolerance for growing ostentation

Delphine Lignieres could not be accused of having a typical French or European resentful attitude to the excesses of the wealthy. The 33-year-old may be the ultimate networker among China's new rich and creator of Hainan Rendez-Vous, the country's top luxury lifestyle show.

Delphine Lignieres says Chinese people have a positive way of thinking about wealth. Yin Enbiao / for China Daily

She says her show demonstrates the Chinese have a more American view of wealth rather than one from Europe, where those who flaunt their wealth buying fast cars and yachts are often seen as vulgar.

"It is true it is more of an American attitude than a French one. And you are surprised because I am French," she laughs.

"I think the Chinese have a positive way of thinking about wealth. They think wealth brings wealth and that people benefit from it," she says.

Our interview is on the final day of Hainan Rendez-Vous in the lobby of the Sanya Visun Royal Yacht Hotel.

Lignieres, despite recently giving birth looking as though transported from the pages of a Paris fashion magazine herself, is very much the center of focus.

People try and attract her attention as they enter and exit the hotel, with one of these having made a personal fortune herself in the Chinese luxury goods industry.

"I think Chinese think of wealth in a very positive way. They are very positive in their thinking about it," she says.

That awareness gave Lignieres the confidence to launch the show last year, hoping the Chinese would buy into her concept.

It attracted no fewer than 115 exhibitors and 5,600 visitors. This year the number of exhibitors was 185, including some of the biggest names in the yachting and business aviation markets, as well as 15,000 visitors.

"The challenge is actually bringing people to Sanya since it is a holiday destination. We have tripled the number of visitors, however," she says.

"The reason the exhibitors came back is because companies like Azimut (the Italian yacht manufacturer) actually sold yachts last year and so they have come back more massively," she says.

The media was much in force with TV channels from across the world as well as specialist boating media giving the event an international focus.

"They are interested to see what is happening in China - in this new economy. The economy is developing very fast and is attracting special attention from the media," she says.

Lignieres, who is based in Shanghai, has been working in the exhibition industry in China for more than seven years, first as a consultant and then through her own companies Asia Latitide and more recently Hainan Rendez-Vous, which organizes the eponymous Sanya exhibition. She employs 12 full-time staff.

Her idea for the Hainan Rendez-Vous came as a result of working on the Shanghai Boat Show.

"I have been working on the Shanghai Boat Show for the past six years and the issue was that Shanghai is not a glamour place and the show is becoming a trade show," she says.

She wanted instead to replicate the sort of exhibitions on the French Riviera and broaden the remit to include luxury goods as well as boats and target it also at China's new wealthy.

"I also used to go with Chinese people to the French Riviera every year and I felt if you wanted to attract the real buyers and get that excitement and glamour you need to find a French Riviera in China. There was no real high-end destination for holidays here and then suddenly there was this policy of making Sanya an international tourist destination," she says.

"I visited the place with all these bays and pine trees. It was so much Cannes, actually. It will become the Chinese Riviera."

The show has proved a massive undertaking, taking six months to bring together and eventually employing several hundred people as it gets under way.

Lignieres says she has been pleased by the feedback from both exhibitors and attendees.

"People have come up to me and said the show is on the same level of a European show and that it is the first time they had encountered a show of this quality in China. Believe me, as an organizer, I take that as a great compliment," she says.

Lignieres studied French literature and linguistics at the Universite Paris X Nanterre before working in public relations for a French food retailers' body.

She had studied Chinese in France and came to China full time in 2002 and soon began working as a consultant in the exhibition industry.

"I actually came to China for the first time in 2000 and discovered it by traveling a lot. I really enjoyed the country and wanted to learn Chinese. It is quite hard to learn Chinese in France so I decided to come back here and learn faster," she says.

"I would say my Chinese is now conversational so I can speak on the phone and I can even do some interviews in Chinese but I sometimes need someone to translate the questions so I can answer the questions properly."

With an entrance fee of 180 yuan (19 euros), some exhibitors felt the show was not exclusive enough, attracting people who wanted to have a peek at some uber lifestyle rather than serious buyers.

"If they are not buyers today, they can be tomorrow. That is the magic of here," she says.

"There is a wide range of boats here from smaller sailing boats to larger ones. Someone who cannot afford one will become aware of the brands. Everything is about brand awareness."

"The real buyers are definitely at the exhibition since I have seen them. If you talk to the key players here, I think they are all smiling."

One of the barriers to developing a leisure boating industry in China is that the industry itself is geared toward the European and North American markets.

Lignieres, however, believes that will change.

"In France it started only in the 1960s and now we have 500 marinas in a country only as big as Guangdong," she says.

"Each marina brings in so much in terms of tourism and value to each city (where they are located)."

A barrier to growth in China is said to be high level of duty imposed on boats brought into the country.

Lignieres is planning to organize a third Hainan Rendez-Vous show in Sanya next year.

"Yes. I have just had a meeting with the owner of the marina. I think we are contributing to putting Hainan on the map," she says.

"I think every country in the world has a high-level luxury tourism destination like Monte Carlo in France, Miami in the United States and places like Bournemouth in England and I think the idea is to create something here for the Chinese," she says.