Holiday consumption up 10.2%

Consumption in Shanghai over the seven-day National Day holiday totaled 25.29 billion yuan (US$3.55 billion), up 10.2 percent from a year earlier.

According to data from China UnionPay Merchant Services Co (China UMS), the number of people who spent money during the weeklong break rose 6.2 percent from the same period last year to reach 24.55 million. 

Consumption exceeded 4 billion yuan after typhoon Mitag passed over the city, surging 15.9 percent from the same period last year.

Around 8.79 million visitors from other provinces and cities spent more than 9.2 billion yuan during the holiday, of which more than 1 billion yuan was spent on October 5, a sharp increase of 19.3 percent year on year.

Consumption by tourists contributed 36.4 percent of the city's total during the holiday, 0.7 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

Tourists from Jiangsu Province accounted for 17.3 percent of the total number of visitors, followed by Guangdong Province at 11.5 percent. 

The number of tourists from Shenzhen increased significantly, reaching 622,000 to rank first among the cities as a source of tourists, and accounting for 7.1 percent of the total number of tourists in Shanghai, up 3 percentage points compared with the same period last year.

Meanwhile, approximately 6.9 million Shanghai residents took trips out of the city, spending 8.93 billion yuan in total, or 1,178.9 yuan per head. Their destination cities were mainly in the Yangtze River Delta, such as Suzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing.

A new batch of business landmarks opened recently, offering consumers more choice for entertainment and shopping during the holiday.

The "first store economy" spurred the city's economy during the period by boosting consumption, according to the Shanghai Commission of Commerce.

MetroCity in Xujiahui area has brought in an Adidas Originals FDD store, which will become the first exclusive shop to show its blue Trefoil logo. The biggest Pop Mart flagship store in city has settled in the Shanghai Global Harbor, with total sales during the holiday surging by over 20 percent from the same period last year.

Three movies celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, "My People, My Country," "The Captain," and "The Climbers," all came out on September 30, and become massive hits across the country. In the period from September 30 to October 6, Shanghai's major cinemas scheduled a total of 33,655, 29,985 and 25,607 screenings respectively for these movies, according to data from Maoyan Movie, a Chinese movie ticketing leader.