Consumption surges in Shanghai over the May Day holiday
Shanghai has seen a surge in consumption during the five-day May Day holiday, as various entertainment, cultural and promotional activities attracted large numbers of visitors and shoppers.
The city's holiday economy received a significant boost, with the launch of the 2023 International Consumption Season, and the fourth Shanghai Double Five Shopping Festival on the first day of the holiday.
According to data from the city's Consumer Market Big Data Laboratory, during the five-day holiday period from April 28 to May 2, the offline consumption payment amount in the city reached 34.36 billion yuan (US$4.97 billion), while the online consumption payment was 24.58 billion yuan.
Of this, the consumption in the catering industry amounted to 6.26 billion yuan, an increase of 70 percent compared with the same period in 2021, and 62.8 percent higher than that in the same period in 2019.
Big data monitoring by China UnionPay Merchant Services Co showed that the consumption of visitors from outside the city added up to 14.8 billion yuan, a year on year increase of 15 percent and 19.3 percent, respectively, compared with the same period in 2021 and 2019.
Visitors from the Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Zhejiang provinces made up the top three visitor groups into Shanghai, while visitors from the three provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui contributed 31.4 percent of the city's consumption.
Visitors were delighted to see major commercial enterprises in Shanghai launch a variety of theme-based marketing activities across five areas: shopping, tourism, cuisine, events and exhibitions.
Throughout the holiday period, Shanghai's consumption market held over 500 themed events per day on average. Comic-cons, music festivals, drama festivals, and art markets took place across the city, drawing crowds and creating exciting new scenes of consumption.
These showed a dynamic intersection of commerce, tourism, and culture, and had a particularly positive impact on the food and beverage sector, as well as a significant uptick in consumption by visitors from outside the city.
