BEIJING: China’s “super golden week,” the eight-day National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, became more than a vacation this year. It turned into a nationwide celebration of consumption, creativity and culture as cities across the country competed to attract visitors and boost local spending.
During the long holiday, many places rolled out distinctive cultural and tourism marketing strategies that reflected their unique characteristics, transforming holiday excitement into lasting economic momentum.
According to preliminary data from China’s Ministry of Transport, a record 2.43 billion trips were made nationwide during the eight-day holiday, averaging 304 million trips per day, up 6.2 percent from last year.
For example, southwest China’s Sichuan Province highlighted its iconic pandas and spicy cuisine, central China’s Henan Province leveraged its rich historical heritage to offer immersive experiences of ancient culture, and the southeastern province of Fujian hosted various cultural events to exhibit the allure of its maritime culture.
Official data released on Wednesday shows that China saw steady growth in consumption during the holiday. Key retail and catering enterprises reported a year-on-year increase in sales of 2.7 percent during the holiday. From October 1 to 7, the passenger traffic of 78 major business districts monitored by the Ministry of Commerce rose 8.8 percent year on year, and their business revenues grew 6 percent.
In addition, a slate of high-quality domestic films premiering during the holiday spurred a movie-going frenzy, with China’s holiday box office exceeding 1.835 billion yuan (about $258 million) as of Thursday morning. Various sports events also ignited spectator enthusiasm, boosting spending on catering services as well as related cultural and creative products.
In Chengdu, panda sculptures, creative shops and themed postboxes turned the bustling Kuanzhai Alley into an immersive “panda world.” Tapping into this internationally recognizable symbol, the Sichuan provincial government launched the fourth China (Sichuan) International Panda Consumption Festival, backed by 400 million yuan in vouchers for dining, tea, liquor and tourism. “We aim to turn festive enthusiasm into lasting power through innovative experiences and cross-sector integration,” said an official from the Sichuan Commerce Department. –The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item
