China's consumption booms during Qingming Festival

China's consumption boomed during Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day, running from Friday to Sunday, the Beijing Daily reported on Monday.

The Qingming Festival holiday is expected to bring about 790 million cross-regional trips in China, an increase of 7.1 percent year-on-year, making a record new high in the number of trips during the holiday, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Transport.

Appreciating flowers, outdoor activities, and going to movies and performances have become the main drivers of consumption during the holiday.

Wuyuan county in East China's Jiangxi province is estimated to receive more than 5.3 million tourism trips during this year's rape flower season, driving a comprehensive tourism income of over 5 billion yuan ($683.8 million), according to the local tourism department.

China's flower planting area is 1.39 million hectares, and more than 5.34 million people are employed in the flower industry, according to the latest data from the China Flower Association.

There are nearly 220,000 seedling and flower enterprises in China, with an annual output value of more than 520 billion yuan. All these provide a solid foundation for the flower appreciation economy.

To keep a healthy lifestyle, many people chose outdoor activities such as riding, camping and hiking this spring, driving the sales of outdoor leisure equipment and heating up healthy consumption.

The order for camping in a campsite in Miyun district of Beijing witnessed 20 percent increase on a yearly basis during this year's Qingming Festival holiday, according to the manager of the campsite.

Marathon is not only a popular outdoor activity but also drives consumption of surrounding industries such as food and beverage, national tide intangible cultural and creative heritage products in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province.

Outdoor jackets and hiking backpacks also become hot items at a sporting goods store in Wuhan, Hubei province.

The total scale of the outdoor sports industry is expected to reach 3 trillion yuan by 2025, according to an action plan to promote the construction of outdoor sports facilities and service improvement from 2023 to 2025.

As more foreign visitors come to China, outdoor activities will be more interactive between Chinese and foreign outdoor activity enthusiasts and a new tourism lifestyle shared by local residents and international tourists, said Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy.

Cultural tourism has become a keyword for the Qingming Festival holiday. During the past holiday, some people went out to enjoy the scenery along the way, others chose to go to the cinema, and some people listened to a concert for spring.

China's consumer market has strong resilience, great potential and full vitality, and with the continuous development of various policies and measures to expand consumption, the domestic consumer market will continue to show a steady development trend, said Li Gang, director-general of the Department of Consumption Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce.