Tourism reservations for this year’s Spring Festival holiday skyrocketed by 4 times from the same period last year, with the number of both domestic and outbound trips hitting new highs over the past three years.
Orders of multi-person dining packages in China’s restaurants in the first six days of this holiday rose 53 percent from the same holiday period of 2022.
The per capita consumption expenditure in China is expected to grow 8 to 12 percent from a year ago in 2023, while total retail sales of consumer goods will expand 7 to 11 percent year on year.
China has basked in a festive hustle and bustle as people celebrated the lunar new year of the rabbit with strong consumer sentiments.
During the week-long holiday, which ended on Friday, sales revenue of China’s consumption-related sectors rose 12.2 percent from last year’s Spring Festival holiday, which ran from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, data from the State Taxation Administration showed.
The figure saw an average annual growth of 12.4 percent compared with the Spring Festival holiday in 2019, the pre-COVID-19 period, according to the data.
Many people returned to their hometowns for family reunions during the first Spring Festival holiday after the country optimized its anti-virus response, while others took long-awaited trips for leisure. During the holiday, people also swarmed into cinemas, restaurants, and different types of tourist attractions, satisfying their pent-up consuming desire.
MOVIEGOERS ARE BACK
China’s cinemas welcomed crowds of moviegoers with a cluster of highly anticipated blockbusters on offer during this year’s Spring Festival holiday. In the period, 129 million tickets were sold, generating a whopping revenue of 6.76 billion yuan (about 998.49 million U.S. dollars), up 11.89 percent from the same period of 2022.
The earnings made this year’s holiday the second highest-grossing to date, sending a strong signal of the robust recovery of China’s cultural and tourism industry this spring.
Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Association, said the movie frenzy made him feel that Chinese films will be off to “a new start towards a better future” after being hampered by COVID-19 for years.
