The Spring Festival holiday in 2019 saw stable growth in domestic and overseas consumption, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Commerce Sunday.
Retail and catering companies in China made total sales of over 1 trillion yuan (about 148.37 billion U.S. dollars) during the 2019 Spring Festival holiday, marking an 8.5 percent year-on-year growth, according to the ministry.
Sales for catering companies in Beijing grew 10 percent year-on-year. Many catering companies and e-commerce platforms launched delivery services for the Spring Festival family reunion dinner or dispatched cooks to prepare reunion dinners in customers' houses. One food delivery platform saw a 107 percent increase in orders for reunion dinners, according to official data.
Consumers favor shopping centers that integrate shopping, catering, entertainment and other functions. Sales of seven shopping centers and outlets monitored in Shanghai increased by more than 20 percent year-on-year.
Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com reported robust sales from February 3 to 8, with sales increasing 42.7 percent year-on-year. Smartphones, computers and home appliances were the top three items on JD.com in terms of sales value.
Tourism consumption data
Chinese people made 415 million trips domestically during the Spring Festival holiday, 7.7 percent higher than last year, according to statistics released by the China Tourism Academy.
Tourism income reached 513.9 billion yuan (76.2 billion U.S. dollars), up 8.2 percent compared to last year.
During the holiday, Beijing attracted 8.1 million tourists, up 5.3 percent compared to last year, and tourism revenue in the capital city reached 8.2 billion yuan, up 12.7 percent, with per capita spending standing at 1,008 yuan.
The Ditan Park and Longtan temple fairs in Beijing received 280,000 tourists during the holiday.
Sanya, in south China's Hainan Province, received over 800,000 tourists, and north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region received over 4.76 million tourists, up 14.6 percent year-on-year.
The cinema box office during the holiday surpassed five billion yuan nationwide.
China's Hong Kong and Macao, and Bangkok in Thailand were the three most popular outbound travel destinations for Chinese travelers. France became the first European country to make it to the top 10 countries in terms of payments on WeChat, according to data from Tencent.
During the Spring Festival, tourism consumption per capita in Shanghai ranked first across the country.
Seven days of consumption totaled 17.73 billion yuan (2.6 billion U.S. dollars), of which February 4 (New Year's Eve) and February 5 (the first day of the year) had the biggest share, showing increases of 9.8 percent and 14.1 percent from last year respectively.
According to the China Tourism Academy, traditional cultural packages were one of the travelers' favorites during the holiday, as a survey by an institution under the ministry showed that about 40 percent of travelers had visited museums on their trips.
Museum tours have been trending during festive season in China.
Visitors to museums, art galleries, libraries, science and technology museums, and historical and cultural blocks during the Spring Festival accounted for 40.5 percent, 44.2 percent, 40.6 percent, and 18.4 percent respectively, and 34.8 percent of visitors experiencing various cultural performances.
