Dining, shopping and traveling lead in Spring Festival spending
Customers do shopping for the Spring Festival at a supermarket.
(ECNS) — China UnionPay transactions soared to a record high in the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, with dining, shopping and travelling being the dominant elements, the operator revealed.
The total volume of transactions at home and abroad through China UnionPay cards amounted to 312.1 billion yuan ($47.6 billion), up 31 percent year on year. The total number of transactions reached 307 million, an increase of 15 percent, during the holiday from Feb. 7 to Feb. 13.
Card payments in supermarkets, on large household appliances and general merchandise continued to show robust growth, up 41 percent, 22 percent and 13 percent respectively.
Card spending in restaurants grew by 6 percent while the average spending was 585 yuan during this time. Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing and Jiangsu led the country in terms of catering expenses, according to the report.
Data analyst Chen Han of China UnionPay said people usually prefer high-end restaurants and spend more during the most important festival in China.
Travelling was also popular in the seven-day holiday, with the volume of ticket purchase transactions in aviation, railway and highway passenger transportation increasing by 39 percent, 39 percent and 98 percent respectively.
One notable change is increased spending at gas stations by cardholders, at a growth rate of 39 percent, while it shows more people chose traveling by driving cars themselves, according to Chen.
An analysis of overseas card use found that more Chinese tourists spend the holiday in countries along the “Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road,” inlcuding Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Spending witnessed a peak in the run-up to Spring Festival while the daily volume of transactions hit a record of 29.5 billion yuan on Feb 1.
China UnionPay is solely responsible for bank card transactions on the Chinese mainland and has extended its network to 150 countries and regions.