Dragon Boat Festival holiday retail spending hits 20b yuan in city

Shanghai recorded nearly 20 billion yuan (US$2.78 billion) of online and offline retail spending between May 31-June 1, up 4.1 percent from the Dragon Boat Festival holiday period between June 8 and 9 last year, the Shanghai Commerce Commission said.

Foreign tourists' spending that are eligible for VAT tax refund jumped 1.1 times and the amount of tax refund also surged 1.1 times.

New measures that allow foreign tourists to receive instant tax rebates at the point of purchase have pushed up foreign customers' retail spending in recent months.

Night economy in the city was also a highlight, according to Meituan data. Residents and tourists' expenditure during the night time surged 20.8 percent from a year ago, and total catering spending soared 38 percent while tourism-related spending also surged 53 percent.

Tourists from cities in the neighboring Yangtze River Delta region such as Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing and big cities like Beijing and Shenzhen made up the majority of visitors to Shanghai.

A total of 19 major shopping destinations took in 1.36 billion yuan in sales and various shopping coupons and incentives lifted consumer sentiment, according to the Consumer Market Big Data Laboratory Shanghai under the commission.

Downtown areas such as Wujiaochang in Yangpu District and the Xintiandi area in Huangpu District recorded 22 percent increase in retail spending, while Jing'an District, Minhang District and the Pudong New Area also recorded sales increase.

Citywide, home appliance and consumer electronics sales under the national trade-in policies jumped 18.2 percent from the two weekdays ahead of the holiday, with total sales value at 780 million yuan.