The holiday economy is a very important window in the Chinese economy because it not only shows the uplift of people’s living standards and the change of their consumption concept but also proves the stable implementation of the supply-side structural reform and the high-quality socio-economic development.
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In this May Day Holiday Golden Week, the holiday economy remains hot across China. In Wuxi, over 100 cultural, commercial, sports and tourism consumption promotion activities were held. The 2024 “Taihu Shopping Festival” in Wuxi, themed “Renewal Season,” distributed consumption promoting policy beef through collaboration between city and county governments, government-bank-enterprise partnerships, and online and offline channels. The total visits to 10 commercial complexes in the central city district reached approximately 2 million; the number increased by about 10% on a year-on-year basis. The number of moviegoers during the May Day Holiday exceeded 380,000, and the daily box office of Jinyi cinema ranked in the top 10 nationwide.
On May 1st, the passenger flow figure in the Wuxi subway system broke its peak value in the past ten years of operation. The Expo Center Station, located at the southern end of the city’s subway network, serves as a footnote to this new record -over 100,000 visits were paid to the various venues of the center, and people participated in the exhibitions and promotional activities in high-value consumption areas, such as automobiles, real estate and finance, as well as fashionable fast-moving consumer goods sectors like pet-related products and gourmet dish. As a comprehensive consumption promotion event, the first “Love Life Festival” held in Wuxi from May 1st to 4th was well received by a huge number of visitors.
According to the monitoring data from the Municipal Bureau of Commerce of Wuxi, 54 key monitoring commercial entities, including commercial complexes, retailers and catering businesses, are expected to achieve sales (turnover) of 867 million yuan during the holiday, which will have a year-on-year increase of 5.5%, compared with 2019, the growth will be 10.4%.
During this holiday, the enthusiasm of Wuxi residents for travel soared. From May 1st to the 3rd day, monitoring points in the city’s key tourist-attraction blocks, resorts and villages identified 5.5379 million visits, which increased 38% year-on-year, the total tourist consumption reached 2.688 billion yuan, which increased 27% year-on-year.
With the reputation of having a unique piece of the Grand Canal, Wuxi’s Qingming Bridge Ancient Canal Scenic Area met an unprecedented quantity of visitors; on the first day of the holiday, it met 380,000 visits, an increase of 37% year-on-year. At the opening of the Meet You Museum in the area, an immersive light and shadow art exhibition called “Meet Ancient Shu” officially started there, and visitors could not wait to enjoy the show.
After having an airline to appreciate cherry blossoms from the air, a new sky view of enjoying Wuxi’s scenery has been added. In Wuxi Dingshu Airport, passengers could take helicopters there to overlook the beauty of thousands of acres of rose garden. Meanwhile, during the holiday, the open-top double-deck buses on Wuxi’s streets are popular among passengers; each bus could take over 200 passengers in a single day.
Moreover, the government of Wuxi has implemented various measures to offer convenience for foreign visitors. The issue of a document titled “Several Measures to Promote the Recovery and Development of Inbound Tourism in Wuxi City” greatly uplifted the quality of international payment services and supported foreign tourists in smoothly visiting the city.
The notion of a holiday economy bears people’s goodwill of having a wonderful life and forming the recovery potential of a strong economy. In Wuxi, this notion shall not be simply viewed as a “festival economy” or “tourism economy” but an increasingly mature multi-industry system containing tourism, entertainment, film and TV works, shopping, transportation, sports and cuisine, and more.
Published by: Nelly Chavez
