MKsportsstaged in Hong Kong, south China, May 11, 2024. Photo: Xinhua" src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2024/2024-05-12/258486a6-294a-49e3-b95e-d1cfe35ef6a9.jpeg" />

A drone light show featuring traditional Chinese culture is staged in Hong Kong, south China, May 11, 2024. Photo: Xinhua

China's consumption during the Lantern Festival, which fell on Wednesday this year, extended the spending fever seen over the just-concluded Spring Festival holidays, with lantern shows and intangible cultural heritage activities featuring technologies such as drones and 3D holographic projections becoming new highlights.

On Chinese online travel agency Qunar, bookings for lantern show-themed scenic spots grew by nearly 20 percent year-on-year, with popular scenic spots including the Zigong lantern fair in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, the Yuyuan Garden lantern fair in Shanghai and the Qinhuai lantern fair in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province.

As of Tuesday, the number of bookings for hotels in cities including Zigong, Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province, and Shanghai during the Lantern Festival was up by more than 10 percent year-on-year, according to Qunar.

Following dancing robots and drone performances during this year's Spring Festival Gala, drone light shows have become a new choice for many tourists. The integration of tech innovations and traditional holidays injected fresh momentum into holiday spending.

According to Meituan Travel, a major online platform focused on tourism in China, the search volume for drone light shows surged 318 percent year-on-year between February 3 and 9. 

Data from Dianping, a popular city guide and review platform in China, showed that outdoor lantern fairs and intangible cultural heritage activities featuring technologies like drones and 3D holographic projections became new highlights during the Lantern Festival this year, with searches for related experiences on the platform surging 11-fold year-on-year.

Data from another platform - Douyin - also highlighted robust consumer demand, with group-buying orders for family reunion products and yuanxiao, a kind of glutinous rice ball, growing 193 percent from last year between January 29 and February 10.

The boom in Lantern Festival shopping was an extension of the buying spree during the Spring Festival holidays, which saw a 5.9 percent increase in domestic tourism travel and record-high box office revenue.

From the Spring Festival holidays to the Lantern Festival, China's consumption boom at the start of the Year of the Snake showed the vigor of China's economy in 2025, Hong Yong, an expert at the Digital-Real Economies Integration Forum 50, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The vibrant consumption in the Spring Festival season - from year-on-year increases in tourist numbers and spending, to record box office revenue - reflects the strong purchasing power of Chinese consumers and the consumption upgrade trend, Hong said, attributing to this to higher personal incomes, trade-in programs and other policies.

"The booming Spring Festival economy was also a result of China's economic structural adjustment and upgrading. Along with the rapid development of services, especially culture and tourism, services consumption has gradually become a new economic growth driver. This shows that the Chinese economy is shifting to more diversified consumption and services-driven activity from traditionally manufacturing-driven, which builds a solid foundation for sustained economic development in the long run," Hong said.

Despite mounting external pressure and domestic difficulties, China's GDP grew by 5 percent year-on-year in 2024, meeting the government's full-year target, official data showed.

The World Bank raised its forecast for China's economic growth in 2025, citing "higher-than-expected fiscal spending and more decisive policy actions to stabilize the property sector, following recent guidance from policymakers," which could push growth above baseline expectations.

Analysts from Singapore's major banking group DBS also expressed confidence in China's economic development prospects for 2025, noting that they expect a GDP growth target of approximately 5 percent to be set at the two sessions in March.

"Efforts to stimulate domestic demand are poised to intensify," DBS analysts led by Ji Mo wrote in a note sent to the Global Times, noting that consumption upgrading subsidies, tax relief and increases in unemployment insurance ought to aid consumption sentiment.

China has full confidence in its economic development prospects for 2025, despite potentially deepening adverse effects stemming from changes in the external environment, Kang Yi, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, told a press conference in January.

This confidence is based on solid economic fundamentals, continued recovery momentum, the emergence of new growth drivers, suitable policy support and the implementation of reform and opening-up steps, Kang stressed.