政府新闻
中国酒店、商场迎来春节复苏 2023-01-31
Chinese Hotels, Malls Welcome Spring Festival Recovery
Chinese hotels, restaurants, and shopping malls have enjoyed a much-anticipated rebound in consumption during the recent Chinese New Year holiday, Yicai Global learned through exclusive interviews with over 40 companies.
"This Spring Festival holiday, the tourism industry finally roared back with eased policies and outbound tourism recovery," Zhou Weihong, vice general manager at Shanghai-based Chunqiu International Travel Agency Group, told Yicai Global.
Short trips used to dominate Spring Festival holidays in recent years. But this year, inter-provincial trips of a few days made up more than half of the total, and the segment's revenue rose over 40 percent from a year ago, Zhou added.
The surge has not gone unnoticed. Room bookings for time periods even beyond public holidays have jumped since late December, said Ke Qiwen, marketing director of homestay brand Yaojia. During the seven-day Spring Festival holiday that ended Jan. 27, about 80 percent of Yaojia's rooms were occupied and soon the rate is expected to reach 90 percent, Ke added.
Based on official data from the culture and tourism ministry, people in China made 308 million domestic trips during the Spring Festival holiday, up 23 percent from that of last year. The number is 88.6 percent of that of 2019 before the pandemic. Tourism revenues jumped 30 percent to CNY375.8 billion (USD55.6 billion) from a year ago, or over 73 percent of that of 2019.
Airlines have also enjoyed the return of clients. Civil airlines transported nine million passengers over the week-long holiday, up also 80 percent from the 2022 CNY. That means that the domestic flight market recovered to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.
People have returned to restaurants. More than 6.5 million people dined in the popular hotpot chain Haidilao during the CNY holiday, up 20 percent from a week earlier, according to an executive. Several holidays since December have accelerated the rebound, the source added.
Tea drink chain Nayuki said that nationwide, the total sales volume more than doubled during the recent holiday period from a year ago. Some stores logged even sevenfold boosts, the firm disclosed. Another popular tea seller, Heytea, said the number of sold drinks jumped more than four times during the seven days from a year ago while some outlets recorded 500 percent gains.
Even this year, families went shopping. Between Jan. 14 and Jan. 27, Shanghai-based Bailian Group's 44 venues, comprising department stores, malls, and outlets, rose 13 percent from a year earlier, and the number of visitors was basically the same as last year.
Online shopping for festive items was also on the rise. During the seven days, the volume of sold gift sets surged more than 50 percent YoY, according to JD.Com. That of sets containing baijiu liquor and dried fruit soared more than 1,000 percent while the gross merchandise volume of pre-cooked dishes increased over seven times.
Source: Yicai
