New ways come into play for the traditional Spring Festival

Celebrating Chinese New Year is more fun, easier and healthier as the holiday sees new modes of dining, shopping and family gatherings.

The key term for this year’s Spring Festival holiday will be “consumption upgrade,” with higher-quality products and services gaining popularity, according to Wang Bingnan, vice minister of commerce.

While meals at family gatherings previously included all kinds of meat, many Chinese are now more interested in organic foods, green vegetables, and other healthy products, Wang said.

Meanwhile, more families are choosing to dine outside their homes or order dishes online to devote more time with their family. Over 90 percent of the Chinese New Year’s Eve set meals available at restaurants have been pre-booked.

Total earnings of retail and catering enterprises are expected to surge by 10 percent year on year to reach 900 billion yuan (US$143 billion) during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday starting February 15, according to Wang.

The popularity of e-commerce has made trips home easier as many travelers have their special holiday purchases, some even from overseas, delivered to their homes via e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba’s Taobao and JD.com.

About 10 courier companies have decided to keep their express delivery services running during the holiday as online shopping has become a habit for Chinese consumers.

While the Spring Festival centers on gatherings of family and friends, many people are trying to include new activities to make it more interesting.

Over 10 domestic movies will debut during the Spring Festival holiday, while sales of skiing equipment rose more than 30 percent ahead of the holiday.

About 385 million trips are expected to be made during the holiday, up 12 percent year on year, with tourism revenue around 476 billion yuan. About 6.5 million Chinese will travel overseas.

People from more than 200 Chinese cities have booked outbound tours to over 700 cities in 68 countries and regions on Ctrip, with destinations as far as Antarctica.

“Changes in lifestyle exert some impact on consumer behavior and habits. Consumers have come up with new requirements for tourism and food, thus contributing to the upgrading of these two sectors. When traveling, they pay more attention to the experience and comfort. In terms of food consumption, they are more willing to pay for healthy food,” said Vishal Bali, managing director of Nielsen China.

China’s Consumer Confidence Index reached 112 points in 2017, up from 106 points in 2016, with job prospects, personal finance and willingness to spend reaching a two-year high, according to Nielsen’s latest quarterly survey.

China is expected to see retail sales of consumer goods expand about 10 percent to exceed 40 trillion yuan this year, according to a report from the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.