Changing festival traditions reflect vigor, potential of Chinese market

Tourists taste snacks on a food street in Tancheng County of Linyi City, east China's Shandong Province, Feb. 14, 2024. [Photo by Fang Dehua/Xinhua]

BEIJING -- During the just-concluded Spring Festival holiday, or the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, China witnessed a surge of people flow and bustling consumption activities across sectors.

While observing traditions, people spent the traditional festival with new trends and fashions, from dining out on the Lunar New Year's EVE to traveling and watching movies on big screen, among others, reflecting the vigor and potential of the Chinese market.

DINING OUT

As an important occasion for family reunions, the family feast on the Lunar New Year's Eve is a crucial part of the Spring Festival celebrations. In recent years, however, instead of preparing meals at home like they used to, more people are opting for the convenience of dining out.

At a restaurant in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province, customers are queuing up before dinnertime for a table to enjoy quality time with loved ones.

"Reservations for the Lunar New Year's Eve dinner started flooding in last October, and most of our restaurants were fully booked before January 2024," said Hou Mingjing, marketing director of Shandong Camry Commercial Group, a catering company that owns the restaurant and over 100 other restaurants in the city.

The turnover on the Lunar New Year's Eve jumped by 50 percent compared with the same period last year, and the average turnover of the first four days of the Lunar New Year increased by 20 percent, according to Hou.

This year, the Spring Festival holiday ran from Feb. 10 to 17.

"The booming reservations during the holiday is a snapshot of the catering industry's sound recovery momentum," said Song Xiaoxi, vice president of the China Hospitality Association, adding that many restaurants have introduced holiday specialties and improved their service to meet consumers' growing appetite for dining out.

TRAVELING

Though reunions with family remain customary during the Spring Festival, more people are squeezing holiday time to hit the road, triggering a travel rush since the third and fourth day of the Lunar New Year.

China reported nearly 2.3 billion trips in varied modes of transport during the eight-day holiday, among which the proportion of self-driving trips jumped from 65 percent in the pre-epidemic level in 2019 to 80 percent this year.

"People are having diverse travel options now. Taking a train ride is no longer their sole option, as travelers can now go on road trips, hail a car online, or get customized passenger transport," said Liu Dongmei, a researcher with the Research Institute of Highway, a think tank under the country's transport ministry.

As China's extensive transportation network makes journeys easier and more comfortable, the country has witnessed a growing trend for cross-regional travel between the northern and southern parts of the country during the holiday.

Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, maintained its growing popularity among people from the south who are eager to explore an ice-and-snow world, while tropical cities such as Sanya, Xishuangbanna, and Beihai remained favored destinations for northlanders seeking winter getaways.

According to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 474 million domestic tourism trips were made during the Spring Festival holiday, an increase of 34.3 percent over the same period last year.

A citizen walks past a movie poster at a cinema in Gejiu City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Feb. 15, 2024. [Photo by Xue Yingying/Xinhua]

MOVIEGOERS

While watching the Spring Festival gala on TV remains a cherished tradition for a family on the Lunar New Year's Eve, more people are choosing to spend time on the big screen.

China's national box office during the holiday hit a record high of 8.02 billion yuan (about 1.13 billion U.S. dollars), according to the China Film Administration. The number of people watching movies during the same period also set a new record of 163 million.

As millions return home or go on trips during the holiday, they brought their movie-going habits to hometowns and travel destinations, driving a surge in the box office.

"Movie theaters in third- and fourth-tier cities are gaining popularity during this year's Spring Festival holiday, as going to movies with childhood friends and relatives in their hometown is now in vogue among the young people," said Lu Ying, manager of the UME cinema in Xintiandi, a landmark entertainment area in Shanghai.

Data from box office tracker Maoyan shows that up to 58.9 percent of the total box-office revenue during the Spring Festival holiday was earned in the third- and fourth-tier cities, the highest in five years.