China's domestic consumption has expanded at a robust pace, setting several records during the just -concluded spring festival holiday.
What do this trends indicate about the country's economy in 2025?
Welcome to Road Today, the panel discussion with Micah Anna in Beijing.
As China celebrated the arrival of the Year of the Snake, the festive atmosphere was reflected in a surge in travel and consumer spending.
During the holiday, more than 2 .3 billion passenger trips were made, with consumer spending hitting a record of 680 billion yuan or about 95 billion US dollars.
The box office also set a new milestone, with the total sales rating a historic high of 1 .4 billion US dollars.
The cumulative China's box office since the beginning of this year has surpassed North America to rank first in the world.
The animated film Ne Jia II also became the highest -grossing film in Chinese history.
Cultural tourism flourished with a 174 % increase in searches for tangible heritage experiences, while both inbound and outbound tourism grew significantly.
Foreign visits to China rose by 23 % and cross -border travel increased by 6 .3%.
So as we look at these impressive trends, what do they suggest about the broader economic picture in China?
So, for more on this, let's bring in Mario Kavlo, Founder and CEO of M -Communications Group and Senior Fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, Dr. Yao -Xujie, Chiang Kong Professor of Economics at Chongqing University, and Su Bu, Sabra Maniabat, Founder and CEO of China Trading Desk.
Welcome, gentlemen.
The 2025 Spring Festival holiday has just concluded and this year's holiday economy has shown remarkable new trends and highlights.
Let's start by discussing some of the most noticeable changes we've observed this year.
Mario, as an expert who has long observed China's social transformations, what do you think are the most significant differences between the 2025 Spring Festival and the previous years?
Thank you. Great to be on the show and talk about this, especially for myself.
Our topics are very appropriate, I notice, in the discussion questions about the Northeast, about the ice and winter snow economy.
So I'm based here in Shenyang, of course the capital of Liaoning Province in wonderful Dongbe.
We love living here, been here seven years now.
It's my wife's hometown.
We have seen this substantial shift in what's been happening with regard to the celebrations and travel across China comparing to last year.
The general comment I'll start with is to say there are still some weak spots in the economy.
We know that. However, overall, as an old customer for many, many retail establishments here, I'm always asking the owners, how is business?
And also including at the wholesale centers.
I frequently go to the wholesale center for the restaurants and hospitality industry here in Shenyang.
It's a gigantic wholesale center called Woonjoo Chung.
If anybody has their finger on the pulse of how good the economy's going, they do.
We're seeing some improvement.
People are saying to me, hey Mario, are we noticing that the economy seems a bit better, people seem a bit more relaxed overall, and I am noticing that for sure over last year, and then that is becoming reflected in the spring festival leisure numbers, isn't it, and that includes Shenyang, which we've seen more tourists in the wintertime than ever before.
So, it's moving in the right direction, I'll stop there.
Subhu, from an international perspective, what aspects of China's spring festival holiday economy this year stood out?
What implications do these trends have for the global market?
Yeah, I think one of the key things that we are seeing is that, we run a national survey in China about 15 ,000 people every quarter.
And what we're seeing one of the biggest changes is a shift from traditional to experiential consumption.
Right? So there's a lot of clear move from traditional consumption to people just wanting to experience more.
So in a later survey, when we asked that question, almost 63 % of respondents said that, you know, they are more interested in culture, architecture and nature.
And that's being reflected in exactly what's happening, both domestic and from an international point of view.
We're seeing this surge in culture and entertainment spending as per the latest numbers, we see it's almost 66 % compared to last year.
So there's a big, big increase in terms of how people are spending money.
The other key thing we are also seeing is family and parent child trip is increasing.
And there's almost accounted for 80 % of the travel.
Obviously, the winter destinations, snow destinations are getting really popular.
We're seeing booking of more than 30%, 35 % increase compared to last year.
That's a really interesting observation.
Dr. Yell, As an economist, how would you assess the overall performance of China's holiday economy this year?
What structural changes in China's economy can we discern from the data?
Yes, I just been back from the UK.
I spent over months with my family in London.
In London, I used to be the best city in the world.
But my feeling is that in London, consumer prices are so high that we have to spend very cautiously.
And I just come back about a week back to Chongqing I went shopping, I went to visit the cinema and I also see the people, I see the the spring vegetables and also the high demonstrations of drums in the show.
Gave all Before this information, I had a few feelings.
First of all, I think the Chinese economy is doing much better compared to even the most advanced economy in the world, like the UK.
Likewise, I also went to the Netherlands, although the Netherlands is a little bit better than in the UK, but compared with people's living conditions materially, including food and services.
And so, I feel that the Chinese are much more neglect and they enjoy a better price, including vehicles.
It's far more expensive now, in Europe, UK, than in China.
So the Chinese consumers are actually enjoying the best benefit in the world.
So this is a precondition for China's economy to recover.
However, if you look at the economic figure, the statistics, apart from my personal feeling, you look at the national statistics, I think China remarkably achieved 5 % of GDP growth.
And consumer incomes, residents' income increased in Decemberate.
So this is very, this is very impressive.
During the spring vegetables, I think people are more willing to spend money.
money, I went to the cinema to see Nezha number two.
And at the time, so many people came up for the tickets and the price is not cheap.
But people are just queuing for it.
It means people, they are more likely to spend money.
And I look at the figures of Nezha number two.
Yesterday, the office tickets increased by 1 .1 billion, let me be just in one single day, it's now almost certain to hit the record high.
To hit the record high, there are two factors.
The first factor is people are more willing to spend money.
And the second factor is that the quality of the movie is so good, is comparatively good internationally.
I think if this movie is going to show in the following cinemas, they are more likely to attract audience, like what we see in China.
What China needed to do now is not because of lack of confidence or lack of consumer demand.
It's that we need to focus a little bit more on marketing, and marketing in the international market, like the U .S.
film, because the Chinese films are so good, and they now move the quality and the creativity is increasing so quickly.
And also, another shock is the deep -sick, and the tick -tock.
This means that the Chinese technological innovation is getting more and more popular, not only in the domestic market, but in the international market as well.
So if you ask me why, I will say number one, because of after the COVID -19 pandemic, the Chinese economy, the Chinese consumer and producers, including the engineering and the scientists.
They are getting, recovering more confidence.
Although, as my friend just talking about in Xinjiang, there are some difficulties in some part of the economy, it's true, but it is actually a transformation of China from a relatively lower level to a relatively higher level, from a relatively simplified consumption In something important to a more diversify and high -level consumption pattern.
And if we know the trend, I think China would have a fairly good future.
Speaking of the Spring Festival box office film, this year's Spring Festival box office set several records, like Dr. Oh just mentioned, films like Noja 2 and the detective town, 19 ,000 have been major hits.
Mario, I Right now you are father, right?
Did you take your kids to see No .2 or any other films?
What do you think about the surge in moving going during the holiday?
The surge in movie going?
Isn't it just another indicator of what we're all talking about.
It's clear. We can see the uptick in the market.
We can see the upbeat sense of what's happening and he pointed out very well that it's also but because there's a tremendous transformation happening overall in the Chinese economy, right?
The whole way that the society is happening and operating.
And let's talk about it from this point of view, what do people do when they're more relaxed and have a little more money in their pocket?
Cause when you don't have a little more money in your pocket, a comfortable amount, the very first thing you're not gonna do is go to a movie.
Right, and you're just not gonna go to the theater.
When the Chinese consumer is feeling more relaxed and comfortable, especially as a family.
And that's such an important part of our discussion today.
All of this points to how the family is still the root of the society here.
Thankfully, there's no neoliberal principles and and a wokeness, you know, away from family as the root of society here.
And what does the family do?
And they got a little extra money.
Wow, they're gonna go to the big theater because that big theater is a different experience, isn't it?
As much as we love being at home, in the living room and watching a movie up on the wall in our living room, going to a movie theater is a completely different experience, but guess what?
It's going to cost you 200 RMB or even 500 RMB to do that.
So think about that for a second.
If the movies are experiencing such a surge which began years ago as well and now here it is happening again, that indicates that there's more more disposable income and we are not talking about rich people.
We're not talking about just the upper middle class.
We're talking, and everybody here knows this.
We're talking about the regular folks, the middle class hardworking, including blue collar families, and they're out, and they're out in these massive numbers going to the movies during spring festival this year.
It's a very clear indicator for all of us.
Indeed. So, what's your take on the surge in moving going during the holiday in China?
And you know the Chinese New Year film market is not just thriving domestically but also gaining global attention.
So how do you view the opportunities and challenges for Chinese films today?
And how can China better tell its stories to the world?
Yeah, absolutely. I think there's a lot of opportunity for Chinese film in international market.
you know, as you've seen from both Neija and Neja too, I think the quality of the production, the various genres of other productions that's coming up, especially around animated and mythological stories is really attracting a lot of international audiences.
Also, there's a lot of recognition of this Chinese culture and rich heritage that you can actually see with sudden popularity of SoHongChu and other apps that suddenly international audiences have started to use.
All right, at the same time I think there's also a lot of challenges when it comes to Chinese movies going into the international market right cultural differences and communication barriers, stories might you know need to be adapted to better resonate with audiences beyond just early adopters, right and also the market is you can see internationally it's really very competitive and I would say quite a lot of it is saturated any genres and variety so there needs to be fresh storylines, there need to be more innovation then I think there will be a better market for Chinese.
Chinese stories also should be told in a way that's accessible and appealing to international audiences, which would mean that you might need to adapt it a bit more internationally rather than bringing it to pure Chinese form, and respecting cultural differences, but also highlighting universal themes and values, like good versus evil, etc. And obviously using digital media and social platforms, I think that can really help to reach the global audiences more effectively.
So speaking of this, Dr. Yao, we see a boom of national tide or guochao animation this years, you mentioned you just watched Noja 2 and Yi has now set the highest box office record in Chinese film history.
Then from an economics perspective does this booming signal that China's cultural industries have entered a stage of high quality development?
And yeah, when people's income increases, people tend to consume cultural products and other products, apart from the basic necessity such as food and transportation and clothing.
In the record -height post office sales, they are contributed by two factors.
Number one is people's income has increased.
And number two, the movie quality has increased.
So these are complicated factors together to drive the cultural economy, to become an integral part of the Chinese economy as a whole.
So China is changed.
I mean, national economies have changed.
The consumption mix of consumers have changed, the taste, the way people want to consume.
These changes reflect the social economy and culture development in the countries.
You know, Neza number two is a very long old -old story, and Neza is already known in China.
But how to transform this storytelling story into a modern movie is actually a remarkable achievement which is contributed by many factors, the technology, the imitation, the computer technology, and also the education of the people who are doing this job.
And also, the consumer's tastes have changed to this kinds of demand.
Also, this kinds of history, a mix of the Chinese tradition, they can create a fairly powerful impact on the national economy to change the taste of the consumer and also contribute significantly to the economic growth.
itself is a great success, but it also reflects how Chinese economy can go further.
More diversified into the traditional agriculture, the traditional manufacturing and traditional services and housing, into a higher level of history, culture, technology, innovation and so on and so forth.
I think this is a very interesting trend, and we need to do more research into how this happened, and what this can happen in the future so that the Chinese economy can be more diversified and strengthened to increase the quality of people's life.
Speaking of the cultural industry further contributing to China's economic expansion, We know this year's Spring Festival is the first New Year since China's successful inscription of the event on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
This year, during the holiday, we have seen many traditional handicraft displays, fog performances, lantern festivals, and traditional craft market, etc. Mario, how do you view this resurgence of cultural revival and the growing cultural identity among Chinese consumers?
I'm going to first reply to this.
I love this question so much, and I'm going to first reply to it by saying three words.
I love it. This is my point of view as a foreigner.
I'm supposedly the odd man out, the expat, the foreigner, the one who doesn't really understand China.
Well, no, I'm not that guy.
I'm the foreigner who's been here for 25 years.
I have a lovely Dong Wei wife, we've been together for almost 20 years.
I have a mother -in -law who doesn't speak a wink of English, we have a son we've raised in here, in China.
From baby to now, he's a, how do we say, a chui, right?
He's in 7th grade, his first year of middle school, 13 years old.
I have watched all the gyrations up and down of the society, and along the way, I made some amazing discoveries, especially in the last five years where I started delving more deeply into understanding the culture and the history of China all around me.
And that's my perspective as a foreigner, so now I'm watching the Chinese people themselves finding a bit of a resurgence and restoration, kind of a renaissance.
Yeah, I'm going to even call it that, a bit of a modern day renaissance for the Chinese people to go, you know what?
Our country is amazing now.
And wow, wait a minute.
It really is amazing now.
And then this, this and it's the truth.
It's not hyperbole.
It's not propaganda.
I mean, it is the China's now the largest safe, stable, successful, capable, civil, normal and peaceful country in the world.
Not to mention there's 1 .4 billion people.
And it's been transforming for the last 20 years.
was like two unprecedented degrees.
So what an amazing story.
And well wait a second, I know that because I'm the foreigner here and I need to learn all about China, but guess what?
My mother -in -law knows it.
You know, local Chinese people are going, wait a minute, yeah.
China is really an amazing place.
And then they start looking at the culture and appreciating it more.
And along with the culture is the history, especially, for example, in my case, here in Dongbei, here in Liaoning province.
Oh my gosh, people don't know how amazing and beautiful Liaoning province is and how full of history it is.
I mean, the Joe Yalbab Museum, right?
From when the Japanese attacked September 18th.
You know, and then when you travel around Liaoning province, you also find, speaking of culture, people don't know.
You start driving south from Shenyang, south, southeast, down toward the ocean.
And you run smack dab into Dandong, right?
with the Duan Ch 'ao, the Yalu River broken bridge, which was the heart of the Korean War era.
And that history, well, between Shenyang and Dandong, there's a whole swath of beautiful culture.
There's memorials and relics and history of places, things that happened during the war period, scattered throughout Liaoning.
There's also a area which is, how do I say, I want to remember real quickly in Chinese, bongjo yan, bingjo, ice wine.
There's ice wine vineyards area about a hundred, 200 or so kilometers southeast of China which are number one in the world along with Germany and Canada.
And the Chinese people who are coming to Liaoning, coming to Xinyang, they're discovering all of this, they're coming and it's amazing to see that they are and discovering and enjoying discovering All this wonderful history.
I see them as local Chinese enjoying it and appreciating it the same way as I am a completely different person, right?
A foreigner that lives here in this country.
Mm -hmm thank you for sharing your experience.
I think as someone who has lived in China for 20 years your perspective is truly interesting and I believe highly compelling.
Tzu Bu, what's your take on this phenomenon, the resurgence of cultural revival and the growing cultural identity among Chinese consumers?
And from a global perspective, how attractive is China's intangible heritage culture in international markets?
I think we've seen a lot of international tourists coming into China.
Just last year, we saw almost 20 billion inbound tourists coming into China, that's double of previous this year, right?
I think the expansion will be and I've been rated this global connectivity.
So it's boosting a lot of revenue and tourism revenue and increasing coming into specific areas of smaller cities and towns do especially because of the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage recognition for spring festival.
So a lot of I would say awareness is happening within the foreigners and now they are traveling not just to big cities like you mentioned to even smaller cities, right.
Because there's a lot of cultural curiosity and immersive travel that they're looking for, and they're looking for deeper cultural experiences, not just going to big urban cities, and they want to look at the stunning natural landscape, or ethnic cultural heritage, and understand more about China's industrial and maritime history, also, the social media, especially Songzhu and Doun have penetrated a lot of international minds, international travelers, international audiences.
So they're able to understand much better about China beyond the tier one cities.
And so they are also looking for off the beaten path trends and looking for smaller towns and cities to explore more.
Thanks, gentlemen, that was Subu Sabramaniya Bhatt, founder and CEO of China Trading Desk, and Mario Kavlo, founder and CEO of M -Communications group and Senior Fellow at Center for China and Globalization, and Dr. Yauzhu Jie, Chongqong professor of economics at Chongqing University.
This is Road Today We'll Be Back after short break.
Stay with us. Welcome back to Road Today.
Let's continue our discussion on China's New Year holiday economy.
Gentlemen, we know visa -free travel became a key trend this spring festival.
Data shows Chinese outbound tourists explored more diverse destinations, while inbound tourism also saw a significant rebound.
Cebu, you are based in Singapore, right?
Which we know was one of the top outbound destinations for Chinese tourists.
After China expanded its visa -free policy, Singapore quickly signed a mutual visa exemption agreement with China.
What do you think this two -way flow of tourism signals about global economic and diplomatic trends?
Yeah, I think there's a really big shift in how China is doing this.
and I think that's good for both China and international other international countries.
Like as I mentioned before, almost 20 million inbound tourists came and primarily I would say that's because of the visa fee travel and outbound we saw almost 130 million Chinese tourists traveling out in 2024.
That's that's getting very close to pre pandemic levels.
And so we are actually getting to see that to probably surpass that this year.
so there is a lot of international exchange of tourists, visitors from both inside and outside and basically because of the visa free that's accelerating the global connectivity right this is not just boosting tourism revenue but also it signals a broader, I would say, economic and diplomatic shifts.
All right, the stronger outbound travel demand from Chinese tourists has led many countries to roll out China specific tourism services, marketing strategies including Chinese speaking service people.
It's quite common in places like Singapore, Malaysia, but even Europe and other countries, western countries, where there's less number of Chinese people that are increasing the service folks who can speak Chinese to cater to the increased Chinese tourists.
Meanwhile inbound tourism is also gaining momentum.
More visitors coming into not just tier one cities like I mentioned before to So even smaller cities.
So this prosperity of tourism industry has not only directly driven the development of industries like hotels and catering and transport, but also it's promoting retail.
It's a promoting entertainment and the, you know, behavior of foreign tourists have brought in a lot of considerable foreign exchange to Chinese economy for the promoting and upgrading the expansion of, you know, industries within China.
Dr. Yaur, you visited London during this holiday.
You've become part of the outbound tourism data.
How significant is the revival of inbound and outbound tourism for China's service sector in general?
What further steps can be taken to unleash the full potential of tourism consumption?
Yeah, I think China is taking a big initiative to intellectually open up the border for many foreign countries to visit China does have a very significant impact.
For example, you see the story that Shanghai is full of the Korean visitors, and Beijing looks like Singaporean, and so on, so forth.
European, American also come to China.
Me is a regular traveler between China and UK and other countries, you know, even in Chongqing, we have a direct flight.
I think this is a very good signal to promote even western cities like Chongqing to have a direct flight into London.
It is a very good development, highly convenient, and this would have a very strongly fashion because of the convenience of flight and also the services, government attitude toward international travelers, so on and so forth.
So it is a very significant recovery from the COVID -19.
The COVID -19 did have a very serious impact between inbound and outbound tourism and also international exchange.
Although even during the COVID -19, lots of Chinese students are still going out to study in other countries.
So in terms of outbound services and demand for outbound services, it's still fairly strong, because the Chinese people, once they have more money, they like to spend on their children.
Actually, my wife, last summer, threw back from Chongqing to London, she told me the whole plane is part of young students, they're going to study in the U .K., Which means the Ministry of International Exchange is actually an integrated part of our life.
You cannot change, and you cannot change for the worse, you can only do it for the better.
As China becomes more open to the outsiders, to foreign countries, whether it is bilaterally or intellectually, it does have increased stimulus to the inbound domestic industries in tourism.
tourism itself contribute a very significant proportion of the domestic gross product, the so -called GDP, but it also have a direct and indirect effect into the national economy, including catering, including hoteling services, and so on and so forth.
All these kinds of changes is part of a modern and open economy.
China is a big, open economy, which is particularly interested to any country, to all the people in China, and so forth.
So this concept of international service, last year, the Chinese service export and import created a new height.
And this trend is also going very fast.
So we have to take the opportunity of how to harness this concept of international service trade apart from the merchandise trade.
So, International services trade is going to become more and more important and international tourism is part of the international service trade.
And we got to forecast or book what happened in the future and do our best to harness the benefit to get international exchange and create a more harmonious global society, so everyone can prosper not only the Chinese, but also foreigners.
Mario, have you noticed any shifts in Chinese tourists' spending behavior, because many foreign travelers chose to celebrate the Chinese New Year in China?
Subaru earlier mentioned there are three -tier cities or smaller towns emerging as new -inbound tourism hotspots.
Reports say 51 towns in China welcomed foreign visitors for the first time with places like to Balto, Dalien, Nantong and Tahijo.
What do you make of this trend?
Well, that's right.
Let's quickly compare to the traveler, wherever they're from.
Whether they're from...
Think of a traveler who goes to Europe and after they've been to the big cities, they've been to London and they've been to Paris.
Okay, that's fine and that's that experience.
But then think about the rich heritage and 2 ,000 years or in more worth of culture found in the European countries, in the smaller cities in Spain, in Italy, in Germany, the hill towns, you know.
This is people love to go and experience the local unique charm.
What I love, the same exact thing is true about China, right?
We call it the nongquen area, right?
The smaller cities, the nongquen go down to Yunnan, go to the old cities there, and many other places, you know, Gui Guilin down into Yangshuo.
And here in Shenyang, up in Dubai and Shih, I mean, people don't even realize for example, you travel an hour outside of Shenyang, you're out in the gorgeous mountain countryside and you can go and ride a boat on the world's longest underwater river in a cave.
And that's right here, in an hour outside of Shenyang, Liaoning Province, and this is what all foreigners are coming to China now, and discovering outside of Shanghai We used to live there, a Zhujiajiao, and a lot of the other water towns, right, outside of Hangzhou.
I could go on and on.
And we call the big cities iconic, but the smaller places are more unique and special and charming, and that is what they are in their own unique way because you'll go to those cities and you'll find something there that you won't find anywhere else.
You'll go to London, you'll go to Paris, you go to Shanghai, you go to Beijing, well, you're going to find a lot of things and a lot of things that are readily available.
But you go to a smaller town, a smaller city, and you find a local family restaurant that's been there for 75 years serving food or making local cultural, you know, handmade dolls and knick -knacks, like I bought when we were in Yunnan.
And you say, well guess what?
I will never have this again.
I will never be able to buy this if I leave here without buying it.
It's a completely unique product.
It's not available anywhere else.
It's handmade, it's here.
it's unique or it's family recipes made also handmade right, here.
I'll never have it again after I leave this amazing wonderful place.
Now what a memory that makes for people well foreigners and Chinese alike we all appreciate those experiences don't we?
Mm -hmm Mario let's now talk more about your hometown in China, the northeast part of China and its winter economy, the rise of ice and snow tourism, and also attracted a lot of travelers to the region.
And Chinese President Xi Jinping is in hard -being to attend the opening ceremony of the ninth Asian winter Games, highlighting China's commitment to developing winter sports.
And he proposed a goal named, back in 2014, of engaging 300 million people in ice and snow sports.
And this vision has already become a reality.
Because you live in the region, and since President Xi's proposal what significant changes have you noticed in local winter sports culture?
Well, this idea that came directly from Xi Jinping was very significant.
I think the first time he gave the formal speech in Harbin I remember very clearly, the shift in the wind as they say, number one, that it's time to revitalize the Northeast again, as I mentioned earlier and I'll always talk about, I love promoting.
It's so amazing, people don't understand.
But this was the seat of Chinese culture, it's magnificent to say and to hear it from Xi Jinping To say oh, it's time to revitalize this region.
Wow. I was excited about it, and we've seen the result and Just this morning was forwarded to me the results of Shenyang inbound tourism in the and the surrounding region Specifically for the ice and snow winter economy that whole promotion idea and its and the numbers were record numbers now Now, this amazes me.
The number, I believe, was over eight million visitors into Shenyang during the spring holiday.
Now, this really surprised me because everybody coming in knew that it was freezing up here.
I mean, it's really cold.
Mine is 10 degrees during the day and mine is 20, 25 at night.
So it is really freezing and yet, people still came.
So even with knowing that the weather was gonna be that cold.
So they were attracted to so many things up here.
I'm definitely seeing it.
We had record number of incoming tourists, which I'm so happy about.
Another thing that happened this year was a bit special.
And maybe people heard about it.
We actually got real snow in Xinjiang.
Now, that's unusual, because we've been here seven years now.
And every year, there's not much snow.
And it's disappointing compared to other places around the world and here in China, where you get a lot more snow.
Xinjiang hasn't been getting much snow at all.
about two and a half weeks ago, we got the first wonderful, true three days of steady snow that dropped about a third of a meter of snow on the ground and drifts a half a meter to a meter high.
And the whole city and the countryside for the first time that I've seen in years was truly blanketed in true classic wintertime snow.
And you know what, it was magnificent.
It was beautiful. are family, we were out walking around in it just for the fun of it.
It was amazing and wonderful to feel that crunched under your feet.
And that's what happened.
So Shenyang got a wonderful winter snow and it came right before the holiday.
So I think that might have also been part of why people were like, oh, come on, let's go.
Let's go up there. And they weren't disappointed when they came.
It was a great experience for all the tourists who were inbound to our lovely little neck of the woods, as they say.
I think this completely changes my perception of Xinjiang, because I always thought of it as a winter destination covered in ice and snow.
Now you're telling me otherwise, but I'm sure many travelers were also captivated by this spectacular scenery.
So, Dr. Yao, how do you see this winter sports fever in China, and how does the goal of engaging between 300 million people in winter sports translate into economic benefits?
Yes. The winter economy, the ice city in Har Bing, which is probably the most influential last year, although the ice industry in Har Bing has been lasting for many decades.
But last year, you know, there's a huge promotion, particularly people say the Xiao Chuu Do.
from the south, they compared to the people in the north, they are pretty big and taller.
But the Southern people, they are probably smaller, especially the young kids.
They dress up in white, and they play in the snow making castles and also in the snow cities.
Very impressive. Actually the year before, last year I was in Cangchun.
Jangchun is not how I've been.
But Jangchun also has lots of ice, especially theNCYEHU.
Oh, my God, it is so magnificent.
I have a docks drive, it is really cool but it's really fantastic.
It is the first time in my life to experience into the ice.
And actually, I spend lots of time in Shenyang like my area, but I actually missed out the But Leo Snow, he mentioned, about one meter stolen or half a metre.
I never experienced it.
It just happened to be in London.
So it's a pity. The winter has special kinds of beauty.
People in the South, they hardly have Leo Snow, so they experience the snow in the North, especially the ice city.
not only in Harbin, but also in Chan Tran and in Ssing -ya -n as well to some extent, because I'm an economist, I always mention because people's incomes have increased, so they want to spoil the world, the nature in a little bit further by spending money into the cold weather.
And because the cold weather give them unique experience, for most people in the South, it's probably one -in -a -lifetime experience, And these kinds of ones in a lifetime experience change their view about the North, and again in terms of economy wise, the North has vast territories.
It's suitable for agriculture, but for agriculture it's just for one season.
In the winter part, there's no economic activity in terms of agriculture.
So what they need to do is to change the winter, the cold winter, into some sort of economic activity that can increase the local employment in people's income.
And it happened. The ice, the snow economy attract people from the south.
This gave the northern people, the northeastern people, a great opportunity.
So how to carve this opportunity into a real ecology that can attract people's income and to increase the local employment?
President Xi Jinping paid a significant attention to the nurses, highly members of his visiting Sun Yang a few years ago and now this year, and also having to give lots of speeches about new productive forces.
And this has a fairly significant impact in the country, because when there he feels that something needs to be changed, something can be changed, given the new technology.
and then also the new part of consumption, the new part of production and so on so forth.
So he suddenly give the idea of the so -called new productive forces, which have a profound effect across the country.
So what about new productive forces?
Winter ice is part of it.
I am sure it must be part of it.
So this is a very good bright spot for northern part of China.
I think this is also why so many people from the south flocking to the northeast region to experience the charm of the snow and the spectacular scenery.
So from a market perspective, first of all, what do you make of the ice and snow tourism booming in China?
China. And as more people take part in winter sports, how can China build a stronger ice and snow tourism brand with global appeal?
Yeah, sure. I think like you mentioned, presidency was talking about engaging 300 million.
But looking at this season, winter season, it's already projected to be about 520 million visitors generating over 600 billion in revenue.
So I think the goal has already been surpassed, if you ask me.
and I think China is doing a lot of stuff that is right in terms of being able to attract both local and global appeal.
I think obviously there is a lot of things that can be done to improve or improve, for example, you can still further improve infrastructure, build and upgrade sports facilities and venues, ensure high -quality services, attract more tourists through participation in sports.
Then we can also look at things like enriching tourism products to meet different needs of tourists, not just active sports but also leisurely travelers tourism and culture.
Obviously the other thing is from a marketing perspective should use social media and international platforms to promote China's ice and snow tourism brands expand more international influences.
Last but not least I would also say that to be more humble and China could learn more from experience of developed international Isense, not tourism regions like the apps and the North America and also look at rightfully we are doing the Asian winter games this year but also look at other things like you know ski World Cup so that you can enhance the international influence of China's Isense, not tourism.
Ninja Melisa talk about the broader economic picture.
Sumu in a time of increasing global economic uncertainty does China spring festival economy send positive signals, and what implications does this have for global and regional economic recovery?
Absolutely. I think it has been a very robust consumer market and there's a strong tourism activity, right?
So across regional travel this year, during the spring festival is almost 9 billion trips, right?
With railways and air passengers already hitting record high, right?
and global tourism spending has almost been close to 680 billion yen, which is again a 7 percent increase.
And we spoke about box office earlier.
It's already hit about 9 .5 billion, and it's almost close to 185 to 200 million people have gone and watched new movies.
So I think there is a lot of resiliency, right.
And there's a lot of record -breaking consumption happening.
and then the integration of traditional culture into modern consumption pattern is also very evident.
The intangible cultural heritage experience has become really a popular trend, right?
And this includes activities such as temple face and folk performances and traditional craft that is not just attracting the locals but also the foreign tourists.
Mario, looking at the broader landscape of the Spring Festival economy, where do you see the resilience and vitality of China's 2025 economy?
Well, you know, Professor Gao mentioned earlier, he snuck in the words deep seek.
It doesn't sound charming and cultural.
But in a way it is.
There are certain influences in the modern society, The new modern technological world, which are both influencing and stimulating and transforming and creating new experiences that are all based in tech and the digital world.
Our phones are a really good example of this.
People are still amazed.
In fact, this morning, I'd gone to Wenzhou Cheng, the wholesale market, and I was talking to some of the local wholesale market vendors.
Now, again, these folks are very local, very Chinese, right?
I mean, their whole life is local Shenyang, they're working six days a week they're working very hard as business owners.
And even they said to me, they said well, you know, last year I went on a trip to Spain and I was also in New UK and wow, and everything was inconvenient.
They were just talking about how paying for stuff was so inconvenient.
And because here in China, I mean, literally everything occurs through this device called the mobile phone and it even creates what?
Access to our culture doesn't it?
I mean all these mini programs and official accounts and I mean if I wanted in the old days to say oh you know let's let's go on a road trip and explore Liaoning province or let's just go on a road trip and explore all around a Zhejiang province, around Hangzhou, and or around Shanghai, or around Chengdu out into Dujongyan, or around Xinyang, down into Banshi and Andong.
Now, let's say you want to plan that trip.
Well, back in the day, that was a lot of work.
You had to use manual paper maps and you would use a pen to map out the roads because you didn't literally on your map.
And then you'd have to watch the road signs as you're driving along.
and heaven forbid you'd miss a road sign.
So it was a completely different experience.
Well, what does all this magical technology put at our fingertips now?
Not only can I say I want to go on a, our family wants to go on a cultural and historic road trip all around the city of Shenyang or like I said, any city, pick a city, right?
And not only is it at your fingertips and your phone, not only with the map, but a listing of all the cultural sites, where to go, how to go, everything, everything in detail is already completely laid out for you.
So, doesn't this help make you to have a nice wonderful road trip experience?
And it's because of this technology.
So, it's the blend of these two things.
And then something like DeepSeek points out how China's government and I'm so proud of this, I love living here, is making sure that all this technology is going to benefit the people.
Not just a handful of billionaire technocrats that's in Silicon Valley.
So I love it. It's fantastic.
And it all portends well for the future.
I'll bet I guarantee, I absolutely am certain, next year's spring festival news and stories and results are gonna be even better than this year.
So I'm sure of it. Dr. Yao, one last question.
When we summarize China's spring festival economy, what does it signal about the broader economic outlook for 2025 in China?
Yes, the spring vegetable economy is fairly impressive.
I have to say it's the most impressive spring vegetable in my life for so many years.
I mainly just rightly pointed out the digital technology, the new artificial intelligence, China is actually moving to the cutting edge of the global economy and technological development.
And the Chinese people are enjoying it.
So I think this kind of technological progress is going to drive the economy to a different level.
So I hope that 2025 is the turning year or the starting year, whatever you say, to move the Chinese economy upward to the advanced developed country in the global, you know, league table.
So, this is the starting point and why we have this starting point is because of the very good foundation that the technological level has laid out and there's numerous people who are working towards these directions, as demonstrated by the spring vegetable.
The spring vegetable of the CCTV and also in Chongqing, in other parts, in Tibet, and also in Wuhan, I think, in UXI as well.
ABLIE platform is so impressive, especially the Chongqing which the airdrome demonstrates the next transform a traditional, the relatively backward city to the most advanced city in the world.
And this, I think, is the future, and the future depends on the new technology, of every new product and a new desire for people to get better.
I think every part of the country is so convenient.
There are plenty of materials, food in particular is much better than any part of the world.
So I think as a Chinese, we feel fairly proud and we should have confidence to propel the economy to a much higher level in the foreseeable future.
As we move into 2025, it will be crucial to watch how these trends continue to shape both the domestic and global markets.
Thank you to our listeners for tuning in and to our panelists for their insights.
Mario Kavilo, Founder and CEO of M -Communications Group, and Senior Fellow of Center for China and Globalization.
Subaru Maniya Butts, Founder and CEO of China Trading Desk, and Doctor Yao Xujie, Chongkong Professor of Economics at Chongqing University.
Let's wrap up today's panel discussion with Miguelena.
Bye for now.
