Spring Festival boosts travel, consumption as 8-day holiday nears end

BEIJING - As China wraps up its 8-day Spring Festival holiday celebrating the start of the Year of the Snake, the world's second-largest economy has witnessed shopping and travel booms ignited by hundreds of millions of Chinese people's family reunions.

This year's holiday, from Jan 28 to Feb 4, marks the second consecutive year that people in China have experienced an extended public holiday. People flocked to tourist destinations, enjoyed cultural experiences and indulged in holiday shopping.

With a string of holiday-targeted domestic blockbusters bringing numerous moviegoers to cinemas across China, the country's film industry proved to be one of the biggest winners during this Spring Festival consumption spree.

From Jan 29 to Feb 3, the daily box office exceeded 1 billion yuan (nearly $140 million) for six consecutive days, bringing China's box office revenue for the 2025 Spring Festival holiday to 8.02 billion yuan, a new record for the same period in the country's film industry history.

Meanwhile, according to data from the China Film Administration, China's total box office in 2025, including real-time presales, has surpassed 10 billion yuan, ranking it first globally.

Notably, the films on the top of the box office chart were all domestic productions, with "Ne Zha 2," the animated sequel to the 2019 hit, earning over 3.8 billion yuan.

While cinema boomed during the holiday, so did travel and leisure activities across China. Many chose to explore the country's natural beauty and cultural heritage in person.

In China's top ski destination, Altay prefecture, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the period from Jan 28 to 31 saw 191,900 visitors, generating 225 million yuan in tourism revenue.

Skiing has definitely become the most popular activity in Altay during the holiday, with a record number of skiers -- over 10,000 -- visiting the Jiangjunshan ski resort on Feb 2, marking a 23 percent increase from the previous year.

Situated at 45 to 47 degrees north latitude, Altay enjoys 170 to 180 days of snowfall annually. In mountainous areas, snow depths average 1 to 2 meters. The terrain is ideal for skiing due to vertical drops of over 1,000 meters.

"The resort offers many terrain parks and creative features suitable for all levels, making it a great place for everyone to enjoy and challenge themselves," said Zhang Zhujun, a snowboarding enthusiast at the resort.

Far to the south, the picturesque Yangshuo county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, draws large numbers of domestic and international visitors with its unique natural scenery and rich cultural activities. From Jan 28 to 30, the county welcomed an estimated 410,600 tourists, generating tourism revenue of 589 million yuan.

Lhasa, the capital city of southwest China's Xizang autonomous region, has also seen a surge in visitors. From Jan 28 to Feb 3, the city received 1.95 million tourists, up by 20.6 percent year-on-year, grossing a total tourism revenue of nearly 1.76 billion yuan, a 14.75 percent year-on-year rise, according to Lhasa's municipal bureau of culture and tourism.

Travel booking platforms echoed the overall trend, with data from Fliggy, a leading online travel agency, showing a surge in bookings, especially from cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. International travel orders increased significantly, with international cruise bookings up more than sixfold compared to the previous year.

Shanghai Airport Group reported that passenger traffic on Sunday hit a new all-time high of 404,000 people, with Pudong airport seeing 259,000 passengers and Hongqiao airport 145,000.

As the holiday drew to a close, airports and transportation hubs in Shanghai braced for the return of travelers, with heightened coordination of metro, bus and taxi services to ensure smooth transportation, said the group.

On Monday, the China State Railway Group Co Ltd reported a historic milestone as the country's railways transported 16.45 million passengers, marking the highest single-day passenger traffic in the history of the Spring Festival travel rush.

On Tuesday, the last day of the holiday, the national railway system is expected to carry 16.9 million passengers, further highlighting the peak in travel activity as hundreds of millions of people return to their destinations after family reunions.

Consumption was another standout trend, with an increasing number of people seeking to experience China's rich heritage, motivated by the inscription of the Spring Festival on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2024.

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, sales at major retail and catering enterprises across China during the first four days of the holiday increased by 5.4 percent compared to the same period last year.

Spring Festival has boosted Chinese consumers' appetite for imported food and drinks, such as lobsters, cherries and wines. "Due to rising demand in the Spring Festival, our company's import has increased by nearly 50 percent in the past month," said Yang Xinyu from a Guangzhou-based international supply chain company.

Since January, the customs authority of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport has handled imported aquatic animals, such as lobsters and mud crabs, with a total value of over 14.3 million yuan, a year-on-year surge of 31.8 percent.

Meituan, one of China's leading e-commerce platforms for services, reported a staggering 300 percent year-on-year increase in online reservations for Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve dinners. Additionally, group-buying orders for "intangible cultural heritage"-themed packages have surged by over 12 times since January year-on-year, reflecting growing consumer interest in cultural experiences.

Experts noted that this holiday season saw a shift in consumer behavior, particularly among younger generations and families. "Young families are increasingly becoming the driving force of consumption, with a trend toward diversified, high-quality and culturally rich experiences," said Sun Jiashan, an associate researcher from the Central Academy of Culture and Tourism Administration.

Data from Meituan Travel echoed Sun's observation that young people increasingly chose to celebrate the Spring Festival in smaller cities, immersing themselves in intangible cultural heritage and historical landmarks.

The increase in cultural tourism and consumption, from heritage experiences to blockbuster films, indicates a growing demand for traditional and contemporary cultural activities.

"This trend has also raised higher demands for the supply of cultural and tourism products and services, prompting the introduction of new business models and formats that better align with contemporary cultural consumption patterns," said Sun, highlighting the potential of China's consumer market and the economy's internal driving forces.