During the National Day holiday, Hey Tea and Haidilao many stores "exploded", and coffee became a rigid demand for young people

The National Day holiday is a time when Chinese tourism is concentrated. The 2023 National Day Golden Week accounts for 16.9% of the year's travelers, spending nearly one-sixth of the year's tourism spending.

The travel and consumption of this year's National Day holiday are still amazing. According to the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 765 million domestic tourists will travel during the "National Day" holiday in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 5.9% on a comparable basis and an increase of 10.2% over the same period in 2019; The total travel expenditure of domestic tourists was 700.817 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.3% on a comparable basis and an increase of 7.9% over the same period in 2019.

Along with tourism, the restaurant industry is also ushering in a surging crowd. On October 6, Meituan released the "National Day" Golden Week consumption data, showing that in the five days before the National Day, the average daily consumption of dine-in food and beverage increased by 33.4% compared with the National Day holiday in 2023. In the catering scene, tourists' consumption increased by more than 75% compared with the 2023 holiday, and the search volume of the night market increased by 170.3% compared with the 2023 holiday, becoming the first popular search term near the holiday scenic spot this year.

Comparing the travel data of multiple OTA platforms during the National Day holiday, it can be found that among the traditional popular travel destinations, cities and counties in the third tier and below have become unexpectedly big winners. Local cuisine has also soared.

Popular cities and scenic spots are still "crowded", and many stores of chain restaurants are "bursting orders"

In this round of holiday consumption boom, popular tourist cities and their Internet celebrity neighborhoods and well-known attractions are still the main check-in places for tourists. According to the National Day tourism data released by many places, Chengdu, Chongqing and Beijing received more than 20 million tourists. Shanghai and Tianjin also received 18 million tourists.

Driven by the tide of travel, catering enterprises have benefited significantly. Jiumaojiu Group's Taier Sauerkraut Fish and Hot Pot Factory and other brand stores are crowded, and customers queuing for seats has become the norm. According to the data disclosed by the brand, from October 1st to October 6th, the total number of receptions in Taier Sauerkraut Fish stores nationwide exceeded 1.27 million; The 79 stores of the hot pot factory across the country received more than 230,000 customers, and the total number of queuing people of the two brands exceeded 200,000.

In addition, Haidilao's stores in key tourist cities such as Xi'an, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen all set a new record for the highest single-day data of the year, and some stores ushered in the highest single-day customer flow in history.

"The queue started at 11 p.m., and there were people waiting until 11 p.m." Ms. Fan, manager of Haidilao Guangzhou Jiahe Jinbo Tiandi Plaza, told the "Consumer Reports" reporter that the day before the National Day holiday, the number of orders in the store had exceeded 100 tables, and the number of customer tables received in the store on the first day of the National Day exceeded 700 tables.

According to Haidilao's background data, from October 1 to October 6, Haidilao's more than 1,300 stores across the country received more than 10 million customers. Among them, on October 1, Haidilao hot pot stores across the country received a total of more than 1.9 million customers, an increase of more than 5% compared with October 1 last year.

Tea shops near popular tourist attractions have also seen a surge in sales. According to the latest data from Heytea, during the National Day, the sales of stores in tourist attractions and urban shopping malls across the country both increased, and many stores increased by more than 600%. Among them, the founding store of Heytea Jiangmen Jiangbianli occupies the top 1 in the total sales volume of holiday stores and the single-day sales of a single store, and the highest single-day sales of a single store exceeds 4,500 cups. Naixue's national sales of tea exceeded 100 million yuan, stores in many places increased by more than 500% month-on-month compared with the pre-holiday period, and the sales volume of multi-scenic spots and hub stores doubled.

Local cultural tourism has driven the growth of special food, and "urban beauty" also drinks coffee in the desert

During the 11th holiday, the excitement is not limited to first- and second-tier cities.

Compared with traditional travel destinations such as Guangzhou and Shanghai, Tongcheng Travel data shows that the number of hotel bookings in popular county destinations during the National Day holiday increased more than the market, of which nearly 100 counties and county-level cities increased by more than 50% year-on-year. The hotel booking data on the Qunar platform also shows that the highest increase in bookings during the festival is in small cities and counties, among which county-level high-star hotels are particularly popular, with a year-on-year increase of 50%.

From Zibo, Shandong, which was out of the circle last year because of barbecue, to Tianshui, Gansu, which became popular with spicy hot, a city has become the focus of the cultural tourism industry with a local delicacy. In this National Day holiday, as the "breaking wealth and wealth" sinks to county cities, many local delicacies have also attracted attention.

For example, with the popularity of the game "Black Myth· Wukong", the scene of "people following the crowd" in Datong, Shuozhou, Linfen and other places in Shanxi Province has emerged. In Xi County, Linfen City, Shanxi Province, with a population of only 91,000, the "Xiaoxitian" scenic spot, which is used as a filming location, has more than 10,000 tourists every day during the holiday.

This has driven Shanxi's catering consumption, especially Shanxi cuisine and noodle culture. Douyin data shows that the number of orders for eating, drinking and playing on Douyin in Shuozhou, Shanxi Province increased by 204% year-on-year, and the orders in Xinzhou and Datong also increased by 123% and 50% respectively compared with last year. The number of group buying orders for Shanxi cuisine Douyin increased by 237% year-on-year, while the number of knife dough buying increased by 186%.

According to the data, from October 1st to 6th, the growth of many local cuisines of Douyin Life Service doubled, and the group purchase of food with local flavor characteristics increased by 95% year-on-year, of which the group purchase of Nanjing saltwater duck increased by 917% year-on-year, the order volume of Tianshui Malatang, which was once popular, increased by 386%, and the order volume of crab roe noodles in the peak season of crab-eating increased by 320% year-on-year.

In addition, many tourists also take advantage of the fishing season to flock to coastal cities. According to Dianping data, during the National Day, the search volume of keywords such as "fishing village", "island" and "seafood" increased by more than 20% week-on-week, and Ningbo became one of the most popular food cities.

But even when they leave the first-tier cities, young people can't put down the coffee in their hands. According to Meituan data, coffee became the most searched catering keyword during the National Day, "there is no coffee in the desert of Ningxia, and there are more tourists from first-tier cities to have coffee." Li Qian, a post-00s middleback girl, worked part-time as a barista at the Tengol Hotel in the Tengger Desert after graduating from university. At the peak of the tour, desert baristas make 700 cups of coffee a day.

It is clear that gastronomy has become a key element of the city's tourism competitiveness. According to a survey conducted by the Food Tourism Research Group of the China Tourism Academy, 92.3% of the respondents will make food strategies before/during the trip; 93.1% of the respondents regarded experiencing local food as one of the main factors for traveling abroad; 76.8% of the respondents who travel for business will find time to find local food in addition to completing business.

The area with strong gastronomic cultural origins, perfect commercial supporting facilities, and strong residents' travel potential has become a relatively concentrated area of gastronomic tourism. According to the "2023 China Food Tourism Development Report", there are currently four major food tourism clusters in the country: the Bohai Rim, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and Chengdu-Chongqing. During this year's National Day holiday, what delicacies have you eaten, please leave a message in the comment area to share.