Rise in spending over the holiday period

Consumption in Shanghai saw strong growth in most areas during the eight-day National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

The city’s 437 large-scale commercial enterprises achieved overall sales of 12.38 billion yuan (US$1.82 billion) from October 1 to 8, up 13.7 percent year on year, according to data from the Shanghai Consumer Market Big Data Laboratory.

The city’s offline consumption during the holiday added up to 65.98 billion yuan, an increase of 12.2 percent from a year earlier, while online retail sales rose 15.7 percent to total 35.86 billion yuan.

In terms of retail sales, 14 of the 18 consumer industries were on the rise. Sales of general goods, home building materials and stationery products rose 47.7 percent, 68 percent and 61 percent, respectively, making them the backbone of consumption stabilization in the city, according to the Shanghai Commission of Commerce.

Food and beverage consumption gradually came out of the shadow of the pandemic, with the city’s spending topping 5.1 billion yuan during the holiday, an increase of 1.8 percent year on year.

Key business areas, such as the central Lujiazui and Zhangyang Road business area, East Nanjing Road, West Nanjing Road, Huaihai Road, and the Hongqiao Business District, maintained year-on-year growth of 30.2 percent, 30.1 percent, 26.1 percent, 24.3 percent and 14.6 percent respectively.

Services consumption such as watching movies, dining and tourism showed explosive growth during the holiday, the commission said.

Data from Maoyan Entertainment showed that from October 1 to 7, a total of 205.13 million yuan was taken from cinemas across the city. Movies "My People, My Homeland," "Jiang Zi Ya: Legend Of Deification" and "Leap" were the top three blockbusters.

Meanwhile, according to data from China UnionPay Merchant Services Co, around 8.99 million visitors from other provinces and cities spent around 8.84 billion yuan from October 1 to 7. The two figures were 30.9 percent and 21.8 percent higher than those in the week before the holiday. 

Tourists contributed 34.2 percent of the city’s total consumption during the period. Those from Jiangsu Province accounted for 19.9 percent of the total number of visitors, followed by Zhejiang Province at 10.8 percent and Beijing at 9.7 percent. 

Also, approximately 7.07 million Shanghai residents took trips out of the city, spending a total of 8.09 billion yuan, or 1,144 yuan per person. Their destination cities were mainly Beijing, Suzhou, Nanjing, Chongqing and Hangzhou.