National Day Holiday Consumption Targets "National Trend"

During the National Day holiday, domestic tourism reached 765 million trips, a year-on-year increase of 5.9%, with total domestic tourist spending amounting to 700.817 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.3%. National key retail and catering enterprises' sales volume increased by 4.5% year-on-year at comparable prices, and the online retail sales of physical goods increased by more than 9% year-on-year...

Behind the data is the holiday consumption full of "new" intentions. Xu Guangjian, a professor at the School of Public Administration of Renmin University of China, said in an interview with media reporters that holiday consumption "business models are constantly being updated, which will expand new space for the continuous recovery and expansion of consumption, and the main engine role of consumption in economic growth will also be further demonstrated."

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On October 8, at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office, Zheng Shanjie, the director of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced that the market consumption during this year's National Day holiday was strong. Next, the focus of expanding domestic demand and increasing policy will be more on benefiting people's livelihood and promoting consumption.

National Day meets "national tide" "Traditional culture tour" becomes "top flow"

Visiting traditional ancient buildings, experiencing the ancient charm of the country... When the National Day holiday meets "national tide", "traditional culture tour" becomes "top flow".

The Beijing Central Axis, which was successfully applied for World Heritage in July this year, and its related attractions along the line, have become the first choice for many tourists to visit during the National Day holiday. Douyin data shows that from October 1st to 6th, the Temple of Heaven and Drum Tower on the Central Axis, which carry a heavy historical heritage, saw a year-on-year increase in related group purchase orders of 165% and 133%, respectively. The modern Bird's Nest and Water Cube also saw an increase in related group purchase orders of 117% and 82%, respectively.

With the popularity of the domestic game "Black Myth: Wukong", related cultural relics have also become a popular route for this year's National Day holiday. Meituan data shows that in just the first 4 days of the National Day holiday, the search heat for "ancient buildings and temples" increased by 126% month-on-month. Cultural relics and exhibition halls and other related scenic spots have become the hottest scenic spot category for consumption during this year's National Day holiday, in addition to natural landscapes.

In fact, many ancient cities and buildings that have gone through the precipitation of the years have become the "golden signboard" to attract tourists during this holiday. For example, Zhenyuan Ancient City in Qiandongnan, Tai'erzhuang Ancient City at the center of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and Langzhong Ancient City in Sichuan, which is popular for Jialing Moonlight Tour, are very popular with consumers, with the year-on-year increase in related group purchase orders on Douyin reaching 1140%, 248%, and 132%, respectively.

To deeply feel the charm of Chinese traditional culture, people will also choose immersive experiences while traveling. For example, in Xi'an, a local Hanfu shop can receive thousands of new group purchase orders every day on average. Some homestay businesses are also keeping up with the trend, providing free Hanfu makeup experience while receiving tourists for accommodation. There are also many homestays that combine Tang Dynasty aesthetics with room design, attracting tourists to stay with the "Han and Tang style" as a feature.

Focusing on "relaxation" "Slow charging tourism" is popularDuring this National Day holiday, "slow-charging" tourism such as county tours, micro vacations, healing tours, and hotel staycations has gained popularity.

Going out for sightseeing is one of the important ways for people to rest and "recharge" during the holidays. If "special forces-style tourism" that intensively checks in multiple destinations in a short time pursues "fast charging", "slow-charging" tourism is more casual and relaxed, without rushing or crowding, and the duration of stops during the journey has also increased significantly.

Search data from the Qunar platform shows that during this National Day holiday, "few people", "niche", and "reverse" are the words with the highest increase in search popularity. Hotel booking data also shows that the highest increase in bookings is in small cities and counties.

Ctrip data shows that a large number of young people have fallen in love with "county tours", driving the average daily orders of county tourism to increase by 40% year-on-year. From big cities to small cities, experiencing differentiated lifestyles, once niche cities occasionally top the National Day holiday tourism hot list. For example, Guilin Yangshuo, Huizhou Huidong, Shantou Nan'ao and other county B&Bs are among the top in the country in terms of popularity.

In addition to preferring the atmosphere of small cities, young tourists have also ignited some leisure projects in cities - foot massage health centers, bath centers, etc.

At the same time, many people choose to go fishing in the suburbs to enjoy nature and tranquility; or watch a performance to enrich cultural life; or invite friends to play a few board games. Relevant platform data shows that during this National Day holiday, the volume of group purchases related to fishing increased by 119% year-on-year, and the volume of group purchases for performances and board games reached more than 2.5 times that of last year.

Small cities and remote areas are "exploding" in consumption in the sinking market

Data shows that during this National Day holiday, the consumption strength of residents in small cities is "exploding", and more residents in third-tier and below cities and counties have started their first flights and overseas travels. On the Qunar platform, during this National Day holiday, more than 600 residents from third-tier and below cities and counties took their first flight, and the volume of first-time ticket purchases increased by more than 50% year-on-year; the volume of outbound tourism orders from residents in third-tier and below cities increased by nearly three times year-on-year, far exceeding first-tier cities.

The sinking market also includes e-commerce business in remote areas. Before this National Day holiday, on September 9, Pinduoduo officially announced that the logistics transfer fees for remote areas such as Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet, Gansu, Ningxia, and Inner Mongolia will be fully undertaken by the Pinduoduo platform.

As the first e-commerce platform in the country to take this measure, the person in charge of Pinduoduo said, "Whether it's going out of the mountain or entering the village, high logistics costs have always been a pain point in the industry, and directly hitting this pain point is to hope to mobilize more merchants in the ecosystem to join the market in remote areas and stimulate consumption."Taking Xinjiang as an example, in July 2023, Pinduoduo, in collaboration with third-party logistics service operators, piloted a delivery to rural areas service, reducing the distance between the last-mile delivery points and consumers from dozens of kilometers to just a few kilometers, and compressing the delivery time from several days to within 24 hours. By mid-October of last year, this service had achieved coverage across 60 counties in the entire region.

In the view of Xu Yong, Vice Chairman of the Express Logistics Branch of the China Communications and Transportation Association, this series of measures has solved the problem of e-commerce being difficult to promote in remote areas of central and western China. By reducing logistics costs, it can promote the extension of downstream express logistics in remote areas, thereby promoting better integration of remote areas into the domestic consumption cycle.

The holiday period is an important window for observing the economy. Through the consumption data during this year's National Day holiday, and the multiple "new" meanings revealed behind it, what we see is the positive trend of China's consumer market and also highlights the vitality of China's economic development.

As Zheng Shanjie discussed at the press conference held by the State Council Information Office on October 8th, the future "focus is to combine promoting consumption with benefiting people's livelihoods, to promote income growth for low and middle-income groups, and to implement actions to boost consumption." Specifically, there will be increased support for certain groups; in conjunction with the "two new" (new retail and new manufacturing), efforts will be made to continuously expand the consumption of bulk commodities; and the consumption of services such as elderly care and childcare will be expanded to enhance the adaptability of the supply side to meet mid-to-high-end demands.