Page 322 - 2022 White Paper on the Business Environment in China
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2 White Paper on the Business Environment in China
Meanwhile, brick and mortar shopping centers Hubei, Sichuan, and Chongqing. According to data
are fighting to attract buyers. The COVID-19 from the Ctrip Community page, night-time tourism-
pandemic has exacerbated the trend towards relevant content increased by 130% in the first half
online shopping. China’s total retail sales in 2020 of 2021 compared to 2020. Hashtags such as "night
reached 39.2 trillion RMB (US$6 trillion), of which tour", "night snack", "night market", "Huangpu River
offline sales accounted for 75%. That is a 10% night tour", "Qinhuai River night tour" are among
decline from 2016. Malls are now seeking to succeed the top searched on the platform (Cision).
without following the path of traditional malls,
which rely on food outlets to drive foot traffic. The Tourist
golden rule for shopping centers at the turn of the
century was 30% restaurants and 70% retail. Many Chinese consumers opened their wallets to
suburban malls are now flipping the ratio around shop during the week-long National Day holiday
to 70% restaurants and 30% retail. Other malls are in October 2021, even as travel numbers fell
trying other paths. Rather than fight e-commerce, compared to the previous year. Sales at nine
some actually provides a space for its vendors to duty-free shops in the southern island province of
livestream on Alibaba’s TMall (Pak). Hainan totaled nearly 1.64 billion RMB (US$252.3
million) in just five days. That marked an increase of
Nightlife 75% from the same period in 2020, and more than
four times more — or a 359% jump — compared
According to 2021 China Night Economy to the same period in 2019. Hainan has become
Development Report, the night time economy in a popular destination for Chinese shoppers who
China is expected to increase to 36 trillion RMB in used to travel overseas before the pandemic to
2021. The night-time economy refers to all economic buy luxury goods. The pandemic still weighed
activity that occurs between 6pm and 2am in the during this year’s National Day holiday, also
service sector, spanning a wide range of business known as China’s “Golden Week.” It has historically
activity, including transportation, attractions, been a popular time to travel since it is one of
food and beverage, tourism, entertainment and two lengthy holidays in a country where workers
more. On average, Chinese consumers made 1.3 have few personal vacation days. However,
night-time attraction bookings in the first half of Beijing’s “zero-tolerance” policy for controlling the
2021, spending 187 RMB per person. Night-time pandemic means that stringent contact-tracing
attraction bookings made on the Trip.com Group and lockdown measures can restrict travel at
Ctrip platform increased by 469% compared to a moment’s notice — as they reportedly did for
2020, and increased by 120% compared to 2019. tourists in Xinjiang. Anecdotally, some schools in
40% of night-time attraction bookings were for Beijing discouraged students and teachers from
attractions located within a short-haul travel radius. leaving the capital city for the holiday. Tourism
According to Trip.com Group data, women make spending of 389.1 billion RMB from Oct. 1 to 7 was
up 53% of the tourists making night-time attraction only about 60% of what it was in 2019, and down
bookings, 6% higher than their male counterparts. 4.7% from the same period in 2020 (Cheng).
The demand for more immersive night-time
tourism products also feeds into the secondary Blurring Foreign Brands
consumption tourists bring to destinations.
Although bookings rates are usually lower in Mid 2021 viewers of some of China’s most
the night-time, secondary consumption is often popular online variety shows were greeted by a
higher than that in the daytime. The top 10 most curious sight: a blur of pixels obscuring the brands
popular night-time travel destinations in China are: on sneakers and T-shirts worn by contestants.
Luoyang, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Xi’an, As far as viewers could tell, the apparel showed
Wuhan, Hangzhou, Beijing, Sanya, and Chengdu. no hints of obscenity or indecency. Instead, the
Tourists from these 10 provinces/cities are the top problem lay with the foreign brands that made
night-time economy consumers: Shanghai, Beijing, them. Since late March 2021, streaming platforms
Jiangsu, Guangdong, Henan, Shanxi, Zhejiang,
322
Meanwhile, brick and mortar shopping centers Hubei, Sichuan, and Chongqing. According to data
are fighting to attract buyers. The COVID-19 from the Ctrip Community page, night-time tourism-
pandemic has exacerbated the trend towards relevant content increased by 130% in the first half
online shopping. China’s total retail sales in 2020 of 2021 compared to 2020. Hashtags such as "night
reached 39.2 trillion RMB (US$6 trillion), of which tour", "night snack", "night market", "Huangpu River
offline sales accounted for 75%. That is a 10% night tour", "Qinhuai River night tour" are among
decline from 2016. Malls are now seeking to succeed the top searched on the platform (Cision).
without following the path of traditional malls,
which rely on food outlets to drive foot traffic. The Tourist
golden rule for shopping centers at the turn of the
century was 30% restaurants and 70% retail. Many Chinese consumers opened their wallets to
suburban malls are now flipping the ratio around shop during the week-long National Day holiday
to 70% restaurants and 30% retail. Other malls are in October 2021, even as travel numbers fell
trying other paths. Rather than fight e-commerce, compared to the previous year. Sales at nine
some actually provides a space for its vendors to duty-free shops in the southern island province of
livestream on Alibaba’s TMall (Pak). Hainan totaled nearly 1.64 billion RMB (US$252.3
million) in just five days. That marked an increase of
Nightlife 75% from the same period in 2020, and more than
four times more — or a 359% jump — compared
According to 2021 China Night Economy to the same period in 2019. Hainan has become
Development Report, the night time economy in a popular destination for Chinese shoppers who
China is expected to increase to 36 trillion RMB in used to travel overseas before the pandemic to
2021. The night-time economy refers to all economic buy luxury goods. The pandemic still weighed
activity that occurs between 6pm and 2am in the during this year’s National Day holiday, also
service sector, spanning a wide range of business known as China’s “Golden Week.” It has historically
activity, including transportation, attractions, been a popular time to travel since it is one of
food and beverage, tourism, entertainment and two lengthy holidays in a country where workers
more. On average, Chinese consumers made 1.3 have few personal vacation days. However,
night-time attraction bookings in the first half of Beijing’s “zero-tolerance” policy for controlling the
2021, spending 187 RMB per person. Night-time pandemic means that stringent contact-tracing
attraction bookings made on the Trip.com Group and lockdown measures can restrict travel at
Ctrip platform increased by 469% compared to a moment’s notice — as they reportedly did for
2020, and increased by 120% compared to 2019. tourists in Xinjiang. Anecdotally, some schools in
40% of night-time attraction bookings were for Beijing discouraged students and teachers from
attractions located within a short-haul travel radius. leaving the capital city for the holiday. Tourism
According to Trip.com Group data, women make spending of 389.1 billion RMB from Oct. 1 to 7 was
up 53% of the tourists making night-time attraction only about 60% of what it was in 2019, and down
bookings, 6% higher than their male counterparts. 4.7% from the same period in 2020 (Cheng).
The demand for more immersive night-time
tourism products also feeds into the secondary Blurring Foreign Brands
consumption tourists bring to destinations.
Although bookings rates are usually lower in Mid 2021 viewers of some of China’s most
the night-time, secondary consumption is often popular online variety shows were greeted by a
higher than that in the daytime. The top 10 most curious sight: a blur of pixels obscuring the brands
popular night-time travel destinations in China are: on sneakers and T-shirts worn by contestants.
Luoyang, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Xi’an, As far as viewers could tell, the apparel showed
Wuhan, Hangzhou, Beijing, Sanya, and Chengdu. no hints of obscenity or indecency. Instead, the
Tourists from these 10 provinces/cities are the top problem lay with the foreign brands that made
night-time economy consumers: Shanghai, Beijing, them. Since late March 2021, streaming platforms
Jiangsu, Guangdong, Henan, Shanxi, Zhejiang,
322
