Consumption rebound: The vitality of Spring Festival travel rush

Editor's note: Hannan Hussain, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is co-founder and senior expert at Initiate Futures, an Islamabad-based policy think tank. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

China's Spring Festival travel rush, a major annual highlight, has contributed enormously to the country's consumption rebound. It is reflected in more than 9 billion passenger trips spanning the 40-day holiday period, and hundreds of millions of cross-country railway journeys. Here's why the consumption surge matters and the reasons underpinning it.  

First, consumers have put their weight behind a plethora of dining, accommodation, electronics and other spending categories. These mega-diverse travel preferences have found a potent match in multimodal transportation links, helping tourists – both domestic and international – to embrace festivities while stepping up spending.  

Official data published on the China State Council website removes all doubt: Nearly 8.4 billion trips were made during the season via road travel, while passenger railway traffic hovered above 510 million. With multiple transportation routes optimized in a 40-day window, the Spring Festival rush facilitated vibrant shopping and enhanced footfall at cultural locations, driving more spending. Millions of domestic travelers have also been able to leverage record-setting maritime travel to support China's domestic tourism market. This is evident in a nearly 6 percent year-on-year increase in domestic tourism, helping to spur total industry spending beyond the $93 billion mark.

Interestingly, the entertainment sector was another key contributor to holiday consumption.  

For instance, nearly a week before the travel boom concluded, China's dynamic film industry had generated billions of yuan in sales revenue, underlining diverse consumer preferences. The Spring Festival entertainment offerings were also marked by high-definition viewership experiences, highlighting the strength of an industry that positioned itself as a world-leading single-market box office within this period. Blockbuster films add to the spending fervor: Ne Zha 2 exemplifies the industry's innovative, audience-friendly offerings. It helped galvanize hotel search traffic around Chinese cinemas from February 14 to 16, which saw an increase of over fivefold compared to previous weeks. This clearly illustrates a dynamic market sector and its economic ripple effect in full swing.

All things considered, it is true – ahead of the Spring Festival travel rush, China's consumption did face some headwinds. For instance, China's retail sales remained on the weaker side in November 2024, while the country's transition from modest spending to purpose-driven consumption was only moderately visible at the time.

And yet, the Spring Festival travel rush has brought a consumption rebound in sight.  

For instance, as the most important annual holiday for Chinese people, it provided a massive opening for leisurely travel and associated spending. This was evident across railways, highways, waterways and airlines – all operating at optimum capacity. Together, they contributed to a surge in consumption through the large-scale movement of travelers.  

On the other hand, consider passenger volume for air travel. It hovered above the 90 million underscoring that consumption wasn't confined to just domestic travel. International routes – and travelers' spending on Chinese destinations – further proved the trend: Scores of flights connected China with Japan, Thailand, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. Together, they helped benefit China's civil aviation industry, one of the beneficiaries of the holiday travel boom.

In this light, the Spring Festival travel rush provided much-needed impetus to China's consumption, strengthening the case for a rebound. This was reflected in wide-ranging spending on inter-regional travel, dynamic entertainment offerings, cultural festivities and the resulting industrial revenue.  

As Chinese Premier Li Qiang recently noted, accelerating consumption is not only a crucial strategy for expanding domestic demand and stabilizing economic growth but also an important step toward transforming the development model over the medium to long term. The Spring Festival has lived up to those expectations.

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