French luxury goods Kering sounded a positive note on its forecasts for its performance this year in China, even if the country’s consumers are not expected to resume travelling abroad for at least a year.

Group managing director Jean-Francois Palus told analysts on Thursday the company had deepened its presence in mainland China during the pandemic, notably through ecommerce on Alibaba’s Tmall platform as well as its own websites in the country.

He also cited internal tourist flows to the duty-free shopping hub of Hainan as well as other parts of the country as fuelling luxury sales growth.

The executive said he was optimistic about the health of Chinese consumption, noting a lot of new consumers beginning to buy luxury products, with “a good propensity to buy and to buy more.”

• Reporting by Mimosa Spencer, editing by Silvia Aloisi, of Reuters.