China is launching a nationwide campaign to boost consumer spending during the longest Lunar New Year holiday on record, with officials hoping “festive goodwill” will translate into robust economic momentum, according to China Daily.
The campaign includes consumer goods trade-in programmes, prize-based shopping incentives, and enhanced services alongside specific discounts for overseas visitors during the mainland’s nine-day Lunar New Year break, which kicked off on Sunday.
International marketing campaigns urging foreign travellers to experience “Shopping in China” appear to have worked, with data from online travel platform Ctrip showing a 400 percent year-on-year surge in flight bookings prior to the festival. Argentinians led the charge with a year-on-year increase of 900 percent, facilitated by China relaxing visa requirements for them last June – part of the country’s broader push to attract more foreign visitors.
[See more: Travel across the GBA surges in the first week of the Lunar New Year travel rush]
Vice-Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping has said China’s roughly 13,000 tax-refund shops for overseas visitors had been fully stocked for the holiday, and were offering refunds equivalent to about 10 percent of purchase value. Data from the State Taxation Administration showed the number of foreign visitors claiming tax refunds rose 305 percent last year.
Cheng Shi, chief economist at ICBC International, said the influx of international consumers could have effects beyond tourism. Their higher expectations around product quality, brand variety and service standards could push China’s retail sector to align more closely with international norms, he noted, improving the shopping experience for domestic consumers as well.
On the policy side, local governments have allocated a collective 2.05 billion yuan for direct consumer benefits via vouchers, subsidies and digital cash red packets. According to Wang Qing, chief macroeconomic analyst at Orient Golden Credit Rating, these targeted measures should provide “both the motivation and the means for households to spend” during the Lunar New Year period, which he described as a “natural peak for consumption.”
