(Bloomberg) -- While Chinese shoppers aren’t coming to New York City in droves these days to buy Tiffany jewelry, they’re still opening their wallets in Beijing.

Tiffany & Co., whose overall holiday sales fell flat, reported double-digit sales growth in mainland China in the final two months of the year -- a welcome sign for retailers after Apple Inc. spooked the market earlier this month by warning Chinese demand was waning.

“The holiday period has actually been very positive -- China is a big area of focus,” Tiffany’s Chief Executive Officer Alessandro Bogliolo said in an interview Friday. He said a boost in marketing spending there about a year ago has started to pay off. “We have seen an acceleration in mainland China.”

China stood out among overall sales that missed the company’s expectations during the critical holiday period. Behind the lower-than-expected total sales were Chinese tourists reining in spending abroad, a worrying trend the company first highlighted this fall. It’s not a Tiffany-specific problem: A Chinese customs crackdown appears to have dissuaded the nation’s international travelers from spending freely, and luxury-goods companies across Europe have reported feeling the effects.

Still, Bogliolo said he expects Chinese travelers won’t sit out forever. “The first six months of last year were very strong. Going forward, I would expect these trends to continue,” he said. “These dynamics can change very quickly.”

Tackling the Chinese market is important for luxury brands looking to grow this year. In early January, shares of Apple plunged after the company cut its revenue outlook because of weaker demand in China.

Tiffany shares rose as much as 3.6 percent in Friday trading, driving share prices to a six-week high.

To contact the reporter on this story: Carmen Reinicke in New York at creinicke@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anne Riley Moffat at ariley17@bloomberg.net, Jonathan Roeder

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