Increasingly wealthier Australians and Asian tourists hungry for high end products are helping drive growth in the nation’s luxury brands market.

Deloitte Australia partner and retail industry leader, David White, says the luxury sector in Australia has experienced significant growth in recent years.

“This has been fuelled in part by increasingly wealthier Australian consumers with a growing hunger for high end branded products, coupled with strong demand from international tourists visiting Australia, particularly from Asia,” he said on Thursday.

He said the recent devaluation in the Australian dollar has further encouraged tourist spending on luxury goods in Australia.

“Whilst a relatively small market globally, Australia continues to be attractive for luxury brand retailers due to our consumer wealth, spending patterns and proximity to Asia.”

White said several key aspects of the global luxury sector will be unrecognisable in the next few years, due in part to technology and the particular buying habits of generation Y shoppers.

He said the travelling luxury consumer will change the concept of national boundaries and gen Y or millennial consumers will represent a significant percentage of sales volume.

In addition, there will be a faster pace of disruption from competitive forces driven by technology.

“As such, global luxury brands must overcome significant challenges in order to maximise engagement with their digitally savvy, time sensitive, and socially aware consumers or risk being left behind,” White said.

The world’s top 100 luxury goods companies:

• Number one is LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (brands include Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Bulgari, Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, TAG Heuer)
• Top 100 companies combined sales $US214.2 bln ($A276.39 bln)
• Top 100’s average sales $US2.1 bln ($A2.71 bln)
• Annual sales growth 8.2 pct in fiscal 2013 (down from 12.6 pct in 2012)

Source: Deloitte’s second annual global powers of luxury goods report.