The just-concluded Dragon Boat Festival once again witnessed the strong consumption power of the Chinese. According to statistics, from June 8 to 10, the cross-regional flow of people in the whole society reached 637 million, an increase of 44% over 2022, an increase of 9.4% over last year, and an increase of 16.6% even compared with the same period in 2019.
The large-scale movement of people often means that consumption is hot. For example, shopping and eating, the three-day holiday, the passenger flow and turnover of the national demonstration pedestrian street increased by 11.7% and 9.2% year-on-year respectively, and the sales of key retail and catering enterprises in the country increased by 9.8% over the same period last year.
There is also a large-scale consumption explosion in the tourism industry. Not only do we travel to Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, but also domestic travel is very popular. According to the estimation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, there were 110 million domestic trips during the Dragon Boat Festival, a year-on-year increase of 6%, and the total travel expenditure reached 40.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 8%.
In particular, many young people now have more mature thinking about tourism consumption. They pursue quality life, but also yearn for tourism, experience different customs, but no longer like to go to big cities to get together, but reverse tourism, a large number of small cities such as Zibo, Shaoxing, Liuzhou, Dujiangyan, etc., to experience folk customs.
Compared with tourism in big cities, the experience of fewer people in small cities is better, and the prices are lower, some netizens have calculated an account, staying in a hotel in Shanghai during the holidays, six or seven hundred yuan can only live in a very general way, but going to a fourth-tier small city, you can stay in a star-rated hotel, as well as catering and travel, and the consumption is much lower than that in big cities.
In addition to small city tours, outings are also particularly popular, with many young people calling friends to go to the suburbs for cycling, camping and hiking, which can relax and exercise. On platforms such as JD Vipshop, there has been an explosion in the sales of related equipment. For example, in the week before the Dragon Boat Festival, the sales of outdoor tables and chairs at Vipshop increased by 198% year-on-year, the sales of canopies doubled, and the sales of jackets increased by 41% year-on-year.
In addition, the sales of sports wear such as football shoes and cycling clothes also increased by more than 30% year-on-year on Vipshop. Whether it is international brands such as Adinac and Puma, or domestic products such as Anta Xtep and Huili, there have been varying degrees of sales growth in Vipshop, which also proves that young people have a high enthusiasm for sports and outdoors.
Therefore, all kinds of signs show that Chinese still have strong consumption power, which is completely different from what foreign media have rendered. During this Dragon Boat Festival, we not only saw that young people attach importance to traditional festivals and culture, but also witnessed the concentrated explosion of consumption, and the huge domestic consumer market is precisely the engine to promote high-quality economic development.