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Shoppers on Orchard Road in Singapore
© AFP/File Roslan Rahman

Seven of the top 10 markets that shop once a week for recreation all hail from the region, the survery by ACNielsen said.

The survey of 22,000 Internet users in 42 markets found that 74 percent of the world's consumers admit to shopping as entertainment when they do not need anything.

Singaporeans, Hong Kongers and Thais rank the highest in the world for shopping twice a week for something to do, ACNielsen said.

In Singapore, nine out of 10 respondents claimed to go shopping for entertainment.

Singapore was also the only Asian country aside from Japan among the top 10 countries where people found clothes shopping "therapeutic", according to the poll by ACNielsen, a market information provider with offices around the world.

One-third of respondents in the booming Chinese market and one-fifth in another emerging powerhouse, India, said shopping for clothes is their favourite activity.

"Shopping has become a national pastime in many Asian countries and is so entrenched in the lifestyles of Thais, Hong Kongers and Singaporeans, that governments have wisely turned this characteristic into a major tourism attraction," said Ashok Charan, managing director of ACNielsen Research Singapore.

He noted that shopping malls in parts of Asia have become "entertainment destinations" with cinemas, restaurants, sports and other facilities.

Regional shopping hubs have been investing hundreds of millions of dollars to roll out ambitious plans to make over their prime retail districts in the hope of luring more high-spending tourists.

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