Chinese spent $180b on food and shopping during National Day holiday

Chinese tourists jump as they pose for photographs at the esplanade of the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, October 6, 2016.[Photo/Agencies]

Enterprises in the retail and catering business raked in about 1.2 trillion yuan ($180 billion) during the past weeklong National Day holiday, up 10.7 percent year on year, the Economic Information Daily reported.

Compared with previous "Golden Week" holiday, tourism, culture and leisure sectors experienced big growth this year, highlighting the impetus for consumption and economic growth, the newspaper said.

Altogether 593 million people visited tourist attractions around the country and spent 482.2 billion yuan during the holiday, up 12.8 percent and 14.4 percent respectively year on year, according to the China National Tourism Administration.

Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Tianjin and Xi'an were the top 10 cities that saw most travelers, according to a survey jointly conducted by China Tourism Academy and Ctrip, China's biggest online travel agency.

Ctrip big data also showed the number of Chinese outbound tourist recorded a new high from Oct 1 to Oct 7, close to six million. South Korea, Thailand and Japan were the top three destinations for outbound trips.

Travelling has become a major consumption item during the National Day holiday, the newspaper said. Chinese spent 9,498 yuan per person over the past year, according to the Tourism Consumption Data Report released by Alitrip and accounting website Wacai.com.

"As per capita income rises and consumption updates, together with mobile internet's penetration, it's inevitable to see a rapid growth in tourism consumption," Feng Rao, director of tourism research center of Mafengwo told the newspaper.

Tourism sector contributed 10 percent of China's gross domestic product, according to the Global Independent Travel Report 2015 released by Mafengwo and China Tourism Academy.

Besides tourism, statistics from the Ministry of Commerce showed that retails, catering, and culture leisure all saw a boom during the National Day holiday.

West China's Chongqing municipality and Sichuan province and central China's Hunan province were the top three regions seeing booming retail and catering business.

In breakdown, gold and jewelry, home appliances, IT products and new energy vehicles were the most popular goods, while banquets celebrating wedding, birthday and home reunion were the major contributors to catering services.