With spending on luxury goods down across the developed world in the economic crisis, luxury brands are increasingly looking far beyond the chic avenues of New York, London or Paris for revenue. The new names on the lips of luxury professionals are far less familiar — Almaty, Shenzhen, Ulan Bator — respectively, the commercial capital of Kazakhstan, a major Chinese provincial centre and the capital of Mongolia. “The desire for luxury is more and more universal so the luxury sector has to reach its clients around the world,” Yves Carcelle, chairman of Louis Vuitton, told AFP at the Paris launch of a new luxury website for China. – from AFP