Booming service spending during Spring Festival holiday echoes China's economic vigor

BEIJING - Zhang Xin, a white-collar worker from Shanghai, made advance reservations to spend the Spring Festival holiday on snow in Northeast China's Jilin province.

Zhang, together with his 7-year-old son, practiced snowboarding techniques under the guidance of an instructor at Changbaishan International Resort. They progressed from falling repeatedly at first to gaining some proficiency. Zhang humorously remarked that this year's Spring Festival was a "sliding" celebration.

Zhang is not alone in spending the holiday exploring new places, experiencing new things, enjoying good food, and buying new clothes and digital gadgets. During the holiday, bustling temple fairs, crowded restaurants and cinemas, and packed high-speed train stations were common scenes, leading to a spending boom in services, which is an emerging consumption engine for the world's second-largest economy.

Service consumption was up by 12.3 percent year-on-year during the Jan 28-Feb 4 period, higher than the 9.9 percent increase in goods consumption, data from the country's taxation authority showed.

According to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 501 million domestic tourist trips were made across the country during the holiday, marking a year-on-year increase of 5.9 percent.

The total expenditure on domestic travel reached 677 billion yuan ($94.4 billion), reflecting a year-on-year growth of 7 percent.

This year's holiday celebrations featured a mix of cultural heritage and advanced technologies. While major museums, including the Palace Museum and Sanxingdui Ruins site, reported record visitor numbers as historical exhibitions became holiday hotspots, multiple scenic areas provided interactive robot displays and AI-guided tours and offered visitors VR experiences.

The consumer market was vibrant and lively, with a strong momentum in service consumption, He Yongqian, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, said at a press conference on Thursday.

Notably, restaurant bookings soared to record levels, underscoring rebounding consumer spending in the catering sector.

Major eateries across Shanghai were fully booked through the holiday period. Xinya Cantonese Restaurant on Nanjing Road Walkway, for instance, operated at full capacity during the Spring Festival holiday.

At a restaurant in the hotpot chain Haidilao in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, the table turnover rate exceeded 10 times during peak hours on the second day of the festival, according to the company.

Data showed that the combined revenue of major catering businesses during the holiday period rose 6.2 percent compared to the same period of 2024.

Moreover, watching movies became a new tradition during the Spring Festival holiday. From Chinese mythology to suspense detective stories, the Spring Festival movie lineup offered a diverse range of genres and posted record-breaking sales.

Data from the China Film Administration showed that on Wednesday, the overall box office for the Spring Festival movie lineup hit over 10 billion yuan, a record high. "Ne Zha 2," an animated feature released during the period, has become the highest-grossing film of all time in China.

Service consumption has been gaining steam in China in recent years. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China's total service retail sales in 2024 grew by 6.2 percent year-on-year, outperforming the 3 percent increase in goods retail sales.

Per capita service consumption expenditure in 2024 among residents also rose by 7.4 percent compared to the previous year, accounting for 46.1 percent of total per capita consumption expenditures, an increase of 0.9 percentage points from the previous year.

To further promote the high-quality development of service consumption, the State Council last year issued a document urging efforts to open up the service sector, enhance service quality, enrich consumer experiences, and optimize the consumption environment.

"China's consumer market exhibits strong resilience, significant potential and ample vitality. The fundamental trend of recovery remains unchanged," said He, who expected steady consumption growth in the first quarter of 2025.