China’s recent eight-day Golden Week holidays (combining the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival) saw a significant surge in consumer activity, with cultural and sporting events emerging as key drivers of holiday spending. China recorded a massive 888 million domestic tourist trips during the period, injecting fresh momentum into local economies. While total consumption reached approximately 809 billion yuan ($113.8 billion), the dominant trend was a shift towards the “experience economy,” with consumers prioritizing high-quality cultural experiences and event spectatorship over traditional retail purchases.
The holiday was energized by over 12,000 cultural events held nationwide, including opera performances, intangible cultural heritage workshops, and cinema, with the holiday box office surpassing 1.83 billion yuan. The sports sector played a major role in this boom, with high-profile events like the China Open tennis tournament and the World Table Tennis (WTT) China Smash in Beijing igniting spectator enthusiasm. The China Open alone drew over 45,000 fans to the National Tennis Center for a single match, demonstrating the growth of sports tourism.This integration of sports and culture with tourism is significantly boosting service consumption in host cities, where fans and tourists spend on dining, hotels, and related merchandise. The trend reflects China’s ongoing consumption upgrade, with spending patterns shifting towards smart, green, and China-chic products. This vitality underscores the economic resilience that Chinese policymakers are counting on to sustain growth, a core focus of the government’s upcoming five-year plan.
