China’s holiday consumption soars

The Spring festival holiday has come to an end. The week-long break has shown the Chinese’s growing appetite for holiday shopping, eat-outs and traveling.

Latest statistics from the Ministry of Commerce show a new record on spending in the country’s retail and catering sectors, with receipts totaling 754 billion yuan (U.S.$115 billion). 

That is an 11 percent rise from the same vacation period a year earlier. Most of the spending has been focused on holiday food, alcohol and tobacco. Jewelry and digital devices have also been popular items during the holiday.

The data also shows box-office sales at cinemas over the first three days of the Lunar New Year surged about 80 percent from last year to nearly 1.7 billion yuan. that is almost equal to the total for the whole week-long holiday last year.

Tourism has become a popular option for wealthy Chinese. Domestically, traditional festival activities, hot spring resorts and winter sports have been the major factors behind people’s getaways.

An estimate of more than 5.7 million overseas trips have been made by Chinese people during the vacation. The top three most popular destinations were Thailand, Japan and South Korea.