Holiday helped step on the gas to give consumption a boost

During the National Day holiday week, 422 million domestic trips were made, down 18.2 percent year-on-year and 60.7 percent of the number of trips made in the same period in 2019. Tourism revenue reached 287.21 billion yuan ($40.36 billion), down 26.2 percent year-on-year and 44.2 percent of the same period in 2019.

Although China's domestic consumption enthusiasm during the seven-day holiday was restricted to some extent, some major tourist attractions were still crowded.

The momentum of China's domestic consumption has been dampened because of the lingering pandemic, but the overall momentum still exists. Had it not been for the pandemic, the National Day economic data would undoubtedly have been better. This demonstrates that China's huge market and the consumption vitality of its large population will constitute a solid foundation for its economy.

What is worth mentioning is China's consumption market took on new characteristics and bright spots during the National Day holiday. To celebrate the upcoming 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Beijing, Shanghai and other cities have organized various exhibitions or cultural and tourism activities with revolutionary themes to boost the holiday economy. Each place launched various tourism consumption activities with local characteristics to make the holiday's economic pie bigger. Cultural centers at all levels organized 13,940 activities during the National Day holiday, attracting 59,274,800 visitors.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, together with relevant departments, opened 12 boutiques to promote sports tourism and 128 boutiques for rural tourism. About 9,100 cultural and tourism consumption promotion activities were held in five national cultural and tourism consumption demonstration cities and pilot cities, and 283 million yuan of cultural and tourism consumption subsidies were distributed, directly generating 15.41 billion yuan of consumption.

Consumption has become the main engine to boost China's economic growth. The impact of the pandemic on the economy cannot be ignored, but it cannot suffocate the new consumption characteristics and dynamism. With systematic measures adopted by the central and local governments, China's efforts to stabilize the economy are expected to achieve more results.