Rise in holiday spending shows that consumption engine powering up

OCT 1 IS NATIONAL DAY in China, and the government made the seven days from Oct 1 to Oct 7 a National Day holiday, or Golden Week, 20 years ago in a bid to boost consumption. Beijing News comments:

The Golden Week over the past 20 years has proved to be a prism with which to gain insight into the changes of the Chinese people's consumption habits and structure. The sales of high-grade goods and services during the holiday have increased markedly over the past two decades.

During the holiday last year, Chinese nationals made a total of 663 million trips, up 11.96 percent year-on-year, generating about 550 billion yuan ($80 billion) of tourism revenue, an increase of 13.97 percent from the same period in 2016. It is estimated that more than 700 million trips will be made this year and the revenue from tourism will reach 600 billion yuan.