Posters of Despicable Me 4 in a cinema in Shanghai Photo: VCG
From rich tourism patterns and diverse films to long queues in front of popular restaurants and malls,
MK sports the bustling summer peak season has been injecting fresh vitality into China's continuous consumption recovery.
Crowds were seen at SKP, a luxury shopping mall in Beijing, on the Qixi Festival (Chinese Valentine's Day), which fell on Saturday. A Beijing-based white-collar worker surnamed Tao told the Global Times on Sunday that he saw more consumers and heavier traffic around the mall than on regular weekends.
"Most people came to pick up presents for their loved ones as the mall launched various promotional events, such as free gifts and extra shopping points," Tao said.
Hotel packages including dinner and tickets to scenic areas are proving a hit, with a rise of 122 percent in bookings compared with last month, per data from Tongcheng Travel sent to the Global Times.
As of press time on Sunday, China's summer box office had reached 9.19 billion yuan ($1.28 billion), according to Chinese ticketing platform Maoyan.
Amid the travel peak, affluent tourism patterns have become an indispensable engine driving up consumption, while Chinese localities and responsible authorities are stepping up efforts to bolster local attractions.
A resident surnamed Yin based in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality is currently traveling in Anshun, Southwest China's Guizhou Province to escape the summer heat. She told the Global Times on Sunday that her hotel was fully booked during her entire stay, and the majority of tourists came for cool weather, especially families with children.
Transportation authorities have added capacity amid rising demand. For instance, the number of passenger trains entering and leaving Southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region has risen to nine pairs from the initial three pairs, China Media Group reported on Sunday.
Summer consumption remains robust, and merchants have launched promotions that focus on new shopping patterns, as domestic consumers are focusing more on the practical side, Zhang Yi, CEO of the iiMedia Research Institute, told the Global Times on Sunday.
The closer combination of online and on-site consumption has been a major highlight for this year's summer season, and more physical retailers are participating in online promotions, according to Zhang.
Multiple Chinese cities and provinces have been offering coupons and subsidies to help boost local consumption. South China's Guangdong Province is offering subsidies worth 8 million yuan from July to September, and Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan Province is offering 30 million yuan worth of coupons, according to media reports.
Zhang stressed the importance of Chinese localities in shoring up local consumption through innovative means, in addition to giving out vouchers and other stimulus measures.
The State Council on August 3 unveiled a guideline on boosting the high-quality development of services consumption to release consumption potential. According to the guideline, the quality of accommodation services and foreign-related services should be improved. The guideline also called for expanding the opening-up of the services industry.
China's growth in services has consistently outpaced goods, which presents both an opportunity and hedge, Bloomberg reported. With services at just about 50 percent of GDP, the sector has plenty of room to grow before reaching the 75 percent level seen in the US or the EU, according to the report.
