For the Chinese people, the eternal theme of the Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, remains family reunion, yet an increasing number of Chinese are choosing to integrate travel and movie-watching into their holiday traditions.
The eight-day holiday saw a record number of people go on trips, more holiday goods purchases, and more quality family time spent in doing leisure activities. The growing spending power of Chinese consumers, combined with government policies to support shopping, tourism and cultural events during the holiday, will definitely contribute to sustaining China's economic growth this year, according to government officials and market analysts.
Tourism
China's tourism market boomed during the holiday, with indicators such as the number of trips reaching a new high.
Data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism shows that 474 million domestic tourism trips were made during the Spring Festival holiday, marking a 34.3 percent increase from the same period last year and an increase of 19 percent compared to the pre-pandemic level in 2019. Domestic tourists spent about 632.69 billion yuan in total, up 7.7 percent from the same period in 2019.
Railway passenger trip data is a leading measure of the country's Spring Festival holiday festivities, which feature the largest population migration in a year.
On Feb. 17, the last day of the eight-day holiday, nearly 16.07 million railway trips were recorded, smashing the single-day passenger trips record in the Spring Festival travel rush period for four days in a row, according to data from the China State Railway Group, the national railway operator. Chinese railways reported 99.46 million passenger trips in total for the holiday.
Air travel also experienced a significant uptick, with data from VariFlight, a China-based civil aviation data service provider, indicating sustained high volumes of passengers from the first to the sixth day of the Chinese New Year. Predominant destinations include first- and second-tier central cities as well as popular tourist hubs.
Notably, scenic attractions nationwide witnessed notable increases in visitor numbers. Statistics reveal that China's major cultural and tourism sites have welcomed 123 million tourists as of last Wednesday, reflecting a robust 22.8 percent surge compared to the same period in 2023.
A distinct trend during the Spring Festival holiday is the cross-country travel phenomenon, where individuals from southern regions venture northward in pursuit of ice and snow, while northerners seek refuge from the cold by heading south to warmer climates.
The robust travel activity observed during the Spring Festival holiday sets a promising tone for the tourism industry in 2024. Projections from the China Tourism Academy indicate that Chinese tourists are poised to embark on over 6 billion domestic trips this year, with the combined tally of inbound and outbound international travelers expected to surpass 260 million, showcasing continued growth and vitality in the tourism sector.
Film market
During the Spring Festival holiday, watching movies is an increasingly popular activity for families and friends in China to celebrate their reunion, a trend that has contributed to the vibrancy of the country's film market in 2024.
Statistics from the China Film Administration, the nation's top industry regulator, showed that during the eight-day holiday period, the country grossed a whopping 8.02 billion yuan from 163 million tickets, surging 18.47 percent and 26.36 percent, respectively, compared with the same period last year.
This surge in revenue during the festival is a testament to the broader recovery that China's film industry has experienced, particularly starting from 2023, with total box office revenue surpassing 54.9 billion yuan and nearly 1.3 billion tickets sold.
Data shows that the enthusiasm for movie-going is not limited to major cities. Residents of third- and fourth-tier cities have become major contributors to cinema consumption, accounting for more than half of the total box office revenue, at 54 percent, the highest in five years. Moreover, the trend of family viewership has seen growth, with groups of three or more increasing from less than 20 percent last year to 27 percent.
The diversity of this year's Spring Festival film lineup has also contributed to the booming market. Nine movies were released, primarily spanning the comedy and animation genres, catering to various audience segments.
While there were none of the blockbuster hits in hard science fiction and costume fantasy seen in recent years, 2024's lineup broke records in the pre-sale stage for Spring Festival films over the past three years, becoming the quickest pre-sale box office to surpass 100 million.
Among them, two have set off a social media buzz, with state agencies even joining the discussion which addresses topics such as weight loss, self-love and legal justice.
Directed, written and starring Jia Ling, a representative of the new generation of female Chinese directors, YOLO (“you only live once” or Re La Gun Tang in Chinese) is about an overweight woman, Leying, who loses weight through boxing training while finding herself and learning to love herself through the sport. The comedy film was the box-office champion with a take of 2.7 billion yuan.
While adapted from the Japanese film 100 Yen Love, the Chinese version is exceptional for Jia’s physical transformation – for the movie she lost more than 50kg in a year to portray the rebirth of her character.
Jia’s weight loss has been discussed more widely on social media than the film. But some top reviews on Douban said the film did not try to portray “losing weight”, but rather how a person could change their life through achieving a dream. The picture's focus on "female strength" has made it both a domestic blockbuster and a rising star in the overseas market as Sony Pictures recently acquired the film's international distribution rights.
Another film sparking discussion during the holiday period is Article 20 directed by Zhang Yimou, a prestigious and award-winning director in China. Zhang’s film tackles a more controversial topic and features three semi-fictitious cases and Article 20 of China’s Criminal Law that delves into the complex and sometimes controversial legal concept of justifiable self-defense.
The film, featuring a prosecutor as the protagonist, narrates the tale of a middle-aged man aiming to make a final push in his career who unexpectedly finds himself embroiled in a highly contentious case. It explores realistic themes from the everyday person's viewpoint, underscoring the justice and humanity within the law.
The line from the film, "What you are dealing with is not just a case, but other people's lives," shows the dual nature of a prosecutor's work and has struck a chord with many viewers.
Luo Xiang, a renowned professor of criminal law at China University of Political Science and Law, said in a recent comment about the film that the public and judicial officers should avoid taking a "godlike" perspective or adopting a rational but armchair stance. Instead, they should consider the situation in which the defender was involved, empathize with the defender's position, and refrain from making excessive demands on the defender.
Consumption
In terms of the scale of the Spring Festival consumer market, according to consumer insight released by Meituan on February 15, the lifestyle service industry achieved a strong start with a year-on-year growth of 36 percent in daily consumption during the Spring Festival holiday, an increase of over 155 percent compared to the same period in 2019.
China Unicom's Smart Footprint data shows that customer flow in key commercial districts across the country increased by 73 percent compared to the same period last year since a week before the Spring Festival. This fully demonstrates the strong consumption demand and enormous consumption potential of Chinese residents.
The Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant authorities, jointly organized the online Spring Festival Shopping Festival. This is the first of the 12 key events of the 2024 "Consumer Promotion Year", aiming to stimulate the Spring Festival consumer market and better meet the needs of the people during the holiday. Since its launch, online retail sales have reached nearly 800 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 9 percent compared to the same period last year.
Various regions in China, including Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, and Heilongjiang have seized new opportunities for "Silk Road e-commerce" development, promoting the nationwide online sales of high-quality and distinctive products from ASEAN, Central Asia, and other countries.
With the rapid development of China's economy and the upgrading of consumption, the Spring Festival, the most important traditional festival of China, has evolved into an important window for observing and analyzing the trends and characteristics of the Chinese consumer market. It encompasses a series of new features such as consumption upgrading, innovative consumption patterns, and optimized consumption structure, which have a profound influence on promoting high-quality economic development in China.
As one of the "three drivers" of economic growth, the stability and sustainability of consumption directly affect the speed and quality of China's economic growth. This is even more prominent in the current complex and volatile global economy, highlighting the significance of driving domestic demand.
Different from the Western dragon, the Chinese dragon symbolizes good luck and prosperity in traditional Chinese culture. Robust consumption during the festival is encouraging and illustrative of the increasingly important role that consumption plays in the country's economic growth. This positive trend marks a solid start for the world's second-largest economy as it begins the new year.
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