China's Spring Festival holiday spending shows strong momentum

With the movie box office hitting record high, intangible cultural heritage travel gaining traction, and rush to purchase high-tech gadgets as festive gifts, China's consumption has been showing strong momentum during this year's Spring Festival holiday, which started on January 28 and ends on Tuesday this year.    

The festive spending spree can offer a glimpse into the diversity and potential of Chinese consumers' consumption power, analysts said, emphasizing that the new wave of holiday consumption growth not only signaled a vibrant and prosperous Year of the Snake, but will also lay a solid foundation and inject new dynamics into growth of the world's second largest economy.

Many Chinese people have been packing their bags to embark on returning journeys on Tuesday, the last day of the eight-day Spring Festival holiday. It is estimated that 329 million trips will be made on the day, according to data released by the Ministry of Transport.

During the eight-day holiday, over 2.3 billion passenger trips were made across regions in China. The total transport volume includes 96.12 million railway passengers, 2.2 billion road travelers, 9.35 million waterway passengers, and 18.29 million air travelers, according to the ministry data.

The epic number of Chinese people "on the move" has brought in diverse ways of celebration and fresh travel momentums this year, prompting more people to venture into long-distance travel and spend more.

Tourists' per capita spending has gained by nearly 10 percent during this year's Spring Festival holiday compared to last year, and the average length of stay in accommodations also rose by 5 percent year-on-year, according to data released by travel platform Fliggy. Data from another platform Douyin also highlighted robust consumer demand, with group-buying orders for food, drink, entertainment, and travel on the platform from January 28 to Monday growing nearly 1.5 times that of last year.

Many Chinese cities also witnessed an influx of international visitors during the just-concluded Spring Festival holiday, the first since it was inscribed as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December last year. 

Data released by tujia.com showed that as of Tuesday, the number of homestay bookings by foreigners has gained 3.7 times during the holidays compared with last year, with 51 towns and villages receiving bookings from foreign visitors for the first time.

Meanwhile, intangible cultural heritage tourism activities have been on the rise to be one of the highlights in the travel market, with relevant searches jumping by 40 percent year-on-year, according to Fliggy. 

"All the rooms at my hotel have been booked up two weeks ahead of the festival, which could be a rare case several years before, Wang Cheng, owner of a homestay in Quanzhou, East China's Fujian Province, told the Global Times on Tuesday, noting that many young travelers came specifically for the deity procession [known as 'youshen' or the 'parade of the gods,'] to immerse themselves in the folk tradition." 

The Global Times learned from a Hong Kong-based travel agency that the company has launched travel products featuring in-depth cultural heritage tours and hot spring trips to Chinese mainland cities ahead of this year's Spring Festival holiday. And the number of group tourists signing up for these trips soared by 50 percent during Spring Festival holiday. 

Spending spree 

Cao Heping, an economist at Peking University, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the emerging tourism trends - which integrate with cultural and commercial activities - underscore Chinese consumers' willingness to spend and prove their massive consumption potential, which will fuel robust investment and growth in relevant sectors throughout the year. 

"Chinese policymakers have also been taking more measures to boost consumers' demand and create a more favorable business environment," Cao said, while noting the example of various localities' moves such as issuing consumption vouchers and launching consumer goods' trade-in programs.  

China's vigorous consumption was also on display at the holiday film market across the country. 

China's 2025 Spring Festival box office has hit a record of 9.7 billion yuan as of 11 pm Tuesday, according to movie data platform Beacon Pro. The movie ticket sales surpassed 8.02 billion yuan ($1.10 billion) by 3:30 pm on Monday, a milestone that breaks last year's record to become the highest-grossing Spring Festival film season in history, according to data from the China Film Administration. 

Consumer goods shopping, a crucial part of the Spring Festival shopping bonanza, has also extended to include mobile phones, wearable devices, and green and smart home appliances from traditional food and clothes shopping, the Global Times learned, which analysts said reflect Chinese people's rising purchasing power for quality products and an ongoing trend of consumption upgrade. 

A manager of a Beijing-based smartphone vendor surnamed Li told the Global Times on Tuesday his store saw a significant 30-percent year-on-year gain in smartphone sales during the holiday seasons, thanks to a bunch of consumption stimulative measures.  

"The peak season for 3C [computers, communications, and consumer electronics] digital product sales was before the Spring Festival in previous years, but the sales surprisingly extended this year," Li noted. 

Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered toys were another popular festive gifts among tech-savvy young generations. The Global Times noticed that AI robotic dogs, which are priced at the hundreds of yuan on average, have recorded considerable sales on e-commerce platform Taobao in January. A Beijing-based white-collar worker surnamed Wu told the Global Times that she purchased her little nephew an AI robotic dog as a festive gift, and her nephew "loved it so much."

Observers said the collective release of China's consumption vitality during the holiday bodes well for the consumer market in 2025, which is predicted to show a palpable pattern of acceleration and improvements. Also, the elevated consumer confidence will also in turn bolster global investor's confidence on the prospect of Chinese economy.