The Spring Festival holiday in 2019 saw stable growth in domestic and overseas consumption, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) 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 MOFCOM.
Sales for catering companies in Beijing grew 10 percent year on year. Many catering companies and e-commerce platforms launched Spring Festival family reunion dinner delivery services or dispatched cooks to prepare reunion dinners in customers’ homes. A food delivery platform saw a 107 percent increase in orders for reunion dinner, according to the 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.
Chinese people made 415 million trips domestically during the Spring Festival holiday, 7.7 percent higher than last year, according to statistics released by 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 8,117,000 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 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 5 billion yuan.
China’s Hong Kong and Macao, and Bangkok in Thailand are the three most popular outbound travel destinations for Chinese travelers. France became the first European country to rank in the top 10 countries in terms of use of WeChat payments, according to data from Tencent.
