THE summer spending frenzy in China, marked by notable consumption growth in tourism, entertainment and sports, has demonstrated service consumption’s expansion potential and its contribution to the overall economic development of the country. This summer, China hosted around 37,000 cultural and tourism events spanning over 4,000 categories, catering to popular interests such as night tours, summer getaways and family-friendly excursions, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Data from online travel platform Ctrip shows a stable rise of the domestic tourism market, with internet searches for hotels and flight tickets up more than 20% year on year. Domestic car rental orders increased by more than 40% year on year, and the single-day order volume hit a historic high on Ctrip with an increase of 50% year on year. The average car rental cost rose 20% compared to last summer. The robust demand for car rentals mirrors the surge in travel during the summer vacation, said Song Zhen, vice president of Ctrip Group, adding that the self-driving tourism market is gaining popularity especially in Northwest China. The country’s box office also heated up in the summer, surpassing the 10-billion-yuan (US$1.4 billion) mark over the weekend, according to ticketing platform data. Chinese consumers have become more interested in splashing the cash on sporting activities this summer, buoyed by the Paris Olympic Games. Data from the e-commerce platform Meituan shows that in July, the search volume for sports activities increased by around 180% from June. The order volume for badminton grew by 90% from a year earlier, and the group purchase order volume related to tennis sports surged by 172%. A State Council guideline coming out amid the summer heat has set out 20 key tasks for developing service consumption, including tapping the potential of services like hospitality, domestic services, elderly care and tourism, fostering new types of consumption and consumption scenarios, relaxing market access, and providing more policy support for service consumption. Experts have expressed optimism on the service consumption expansion in China, noting that demand for services like education, entertainment, tourism and culture is on the rise as China moves toward the high-income stage.Official data show that in the first half of the year, China’s retail sales of services increased 7.5% from a year ago, 4.3% higher than that of goods, while service consumption accounted for 45.6% of the country’s per capita consumer spending. According to a meeting on priorities for the second half of 2024 in late July, service consumption will be a major driver in the expansion and upgrading of consumption.(Xinhua) | 