Consumption observation： the consumption of returning home in the New Year drives the consumption of small cities to be extremely hot.

　　During the Spring Festival holiday, the cultural and tourism market in Shenyang, Liaoning Province is rich in festival activities and sufficient in product supply, and the people’s enthusiasm for traveling is high. Photo courtesy of Xinhua News Agency

　　On January 28th, Alipay released the consumption observation of the Spring Festival in 2023. As the most important traditional festival in China, this year’s Spring Festival has special significance for many people, which is not only the beauty of going home for reunion, but also the preface to expectations and wishes for the new year. As of January 25th, 2023, seven days before the Spring Festival holiday, the data showed that the small town economy, family outing, going out shopping, cross-border tour and slow live broadcast of scenic spots were all on fire in the Spring Festival of the Year of the Rabbit, and consumption doubled.

　　Family outing ushered in a small climax.

　　Compared with the same period in 2022, Spring Festival travel rush shows a strong recovery momentum in 2023, and the total passenger flow is expected to exceed 2 billion. The tide of returning home has brought traffic jams in small towns and promoted the consumption of returning home. "Urban and rural consumption migration" has achieved remarkable results during the Spring Festival. According to Alipay data, the consumption amount of third-tier and below cities increased by nearly 20% compared with the same period of last year’s Spring Festival (January 29-February 4, 2022, the same below), which was more than that of first-and second-tier cities. During the Spring Festival, community convenience stores played an important role, and the consumption expenditure of convenience stores in third-tier and below cities also increased by 20%-30% year-on-year.

　　With the enthusiasm of returning home and family reunion, family outing also ushered in a small climax. The data shows that the number of "hotel reservations" searched through Alipay platform has increased by 6 times year-on-year, and the hotel consumption expenditure has increased by 80% year-on-year. The hotel consumption of popular tourist cities in Yunnan, Tibet, Guangdong, Shaanxi and Fujian has achieved remarkable results, with an increase of over 200%. The most popular domestic destinations for Spring Festival tourism, such as Xishuangbanna, Lijiang, Diqing, Dali, Shangrao, Jiangxi and Huangshan, Anhui, saw Alipay spending more than double year-on-year.

　　With traveling, rental services such as car rental and camera rental have also become popular demands. During the Spring Festival, the passenger flow of the car rental Alipay applet increased nearly four times. The traffic of small programs such as renting cameras has nearly doubled. The search volume of "charging" and "charging pile" related to new energy has also increased significantly, with the growth rates of 300% and 150% respectively.

　　The Spring Festival business circle that is not at home is on fire.

　　More people no longer stay at home and walk into shopping malls and commercial streets. Offline consumption ushered in spring, and good news came everywhere: the passenger flow of 60 key business districts in Beijing exceeded 14.127 million, and the sales of key department stores, supermarkets, restaurants, e-commerce and other enterprises increased by 13.7% compared with the same period before the epidemic. Guangzhou West Lake Flower Market was restarted, reigniting the consumption boom of Beijing Road business circle. The average daily passenger flow increased by 83% year-on-year, and the cumulative sales in January increased by 30%. According to Alipay data, Hangzhou Hubin Yintai in77, Hangzhou Wulin Business Circle, Changsha Wuyi Square, Changsha Pozi Street, Xiamen Zhongshan Road Chinatown, Changsha Duzheng Street, Chongqing Jie Fangbei, Chongqing Shancheng Lane, Nanjing Confucius Temple, nanjing xinjiekou and other well-known business circles are extremely hot, and their consumption growth rate ranks among the top ten in China, with Changsha occupying three seats.

　　Consumers are enthusiastic about outbound travel.

　　On the first Spring Festival after the resumption of outbound travel, overseas merchants also made great efforts to welcome China guests. According to Alipay data, Hong Kong, China and Macao, China are the most popular outbound destinations for mainland tourists. During the Spring Festival, the number of mainland tourists spending in Macau doubled compared with the same period last year, and it also increased by nearly 70% in Hong Kong.

　　The platform data of AlipayHK, an e-wallet used by Hong Kong citizens every day, also shows that the number of cross-border consumption of AlipayHK in the Mainland and Macao during the Spring Festival has soared 18 times compared with last year’s Spring Festival, especially the number of people, transactions and transaction amount of Hong Kong people using AlipayHK in Macao have reached a record high.

　　At the same time, the sales volume of overseas travel insurance insured by Ant has soared, up 61 times year-on-year, which shows that the enthusiasm for seeing the world is high.

　　Text/reporter Wen Wei