China’s National Day Holiday Consumption Market Posts Steady Growth

Dragon Media News Desk

Consumer spending in China remained steady midway through the seven-day National Day holiday. From October 1 to 3, foot traffic and sales at 78 major shopping streets and commercial districts monitored by the Ministry of Commerce rose 3.4% and 5.3%, respectively, from the same period last year.

The government’s consumer goods trade-in programme generated 19.63 billion yuan in sales over the three days, benefiting more than 3.48 million consumers. A total of 46,000 vehicles were traded in, generating 7.45 billion yuan in new vehicle sales. Sales also reached 6.5 billion yuan for 1.51 million home appliances and 4.9 billion yuan for 1.71 million digital and smart devices.

The National Day holiday is one of China’s peak periods for travel, tourism and shopping. Authorities forecast 2.13 billion cross-regional passenger trips over the seven-day holiday, averaging 300 million trips per day. On October 1 alone, 25.2 million passengers travelled by rail, setting a single-day record.

To manage the surge in travel, China added train services on busy routes and waived highway tolls for private vehicles during the holiday. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism also launched a month-long national tourism promotion campaign in late September.

Local governments have organised more than 20,000 events involving visits to scenic destinations, autumn outings, revolutionary-history tourism, study tours, night-time activities and local cuisine. They also plan to distribute about 310 million yuan in consumer vouchers and subsidies over the month to encourage tourism spending.