PARIS (Reuters) - La Prairie, the premium skin care brand of German consumer goods maker Beiersdorf (BEIG.DE), is counting on China and the United States to return to pre-crisis growth rates by 2012, its chief executive said.

Photo: www.laprairie.com

Dirk Trappmann told the Reuters Global Luxury Summit in Paris that the travel retail market was picking up again and he saw signs of recovery in the United States, one of the brand's biggest markets, which was hit last year.

"We will have single-digit growth this year. Things should get better gradually in 2011. We should get back to pre-crisis growth rates by 2012," Trappmann said, referring to the years 2005 to 2008 when the luxury cosmetics market grew at 7 to 8 percent per year and La Prairie at twice the speed.

(For summit blog: blogs.reuters.com/summits/)

(Reporting by Eva Kuehnen; Editing by Louise Heavens)