Chongqing- On November 13, the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle Consumption Index Conference was launched in Dazu District. As the last destination of the event, New Discovery in Chengdu-Chongqing — 2020 Cadillac Exploring the New Momentum of China's Economy Chengdu-Chongqing Tour, the conference brought the event to a climax.

There were leaders, guests, and representatives from relevant departments of Dazu Government, Ctrip, JD.com, and media from Chengdu and Chongqing participated in the conference. They presented some data from the e-commercial platform to interpret the consumption index of Sichuan and Chongqing.

It is the second Sichuan-Chongqing media jointly launched the themed event. It is a large-scale online event with multi-platform and multi-modal dissemination on the entire network. As of 10 am on November 13, the themed event of New Discovery had achieved more than 400 million hits in CQNews.

Ctrip: Sichuan and Chongqing are each other’s favorite travel destination, making efforts to create IPs

According to Liu Kehong, the regional general manager of Ctrip Group Business Development and Government Cooperation (western China), Sichuan and Chongqing have been the most popular destinations for tourism in China for a long time. “In the first 10 months of this year, the number of tourists and spending in Sichuan and Chongqing was among the top ten in the country,” said Liu. The tourism industry has been hit hard because of COVID-19. With the normalization of domestic epidemic prevention and control, the domestic tourism market has gradually recovered. Among them, Chongqing and Sichuan have performed very well.

According to the data as of October 2020, Sichuan and Chongqing are ranked in the top ten in tourist arrivals and consumption amounts in China. Chongqing is ranked the ninth in tourist arrivals and the seventh in tourism consumption while Sichuan is ranked the fifth in tourist arrivals and the fourth tourism consumption.

According to Liu’s data from Ctrip, the tourists between Sichuan and Chongqing still occupies the primary position, which means Chongqing and Sichuan are both locals' favorite destinations for each other. In addition to the mutual transfer of tourists from both sides, the three first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou are the main source of tourists in Sichuan and Chongqing.

Judging from the ordering situation of local tourist routes in Chongqing and Sichuan, tourists to Chongqing prefer short-distance theme park routes; therefore, festival activities and IP marketing gimmicks are obviously attractive. On the other hand, tourists to Sichuan prefer outdoor and ancient town tourism routes to better leisure vacations and gourmet experiences with group tours.

"Sichuan and Chongqing have never lacked tourists, and the next step is to build content marketing IP based on local conditions." Liu Kehong said that tourists, who visit Chongqing, have younger travel preferences, such as visiting the landmark, themed parks, short-distance urban tours, etc. “In this way, it is suggested that Chongqing can create the IP of young and fashionable tours by integrating with Internet-famous landmarks, cultural gifts, or some other interesting events and activities,” said Liu.

At the same time, tourists who visit Sichuan prefer natural sceneries, hiking, leisure tours, etc. Therefore, Liu suggested that Sichuan can create the IP of nature-relative outdoor activities, food exploring, driving tours, and more.

Moreover, the night economy has become a crucial part of night consumption. Both Sichuan and Chongqing have rich and abundant resources of night markets. Thus, developing the night markets on both sides is another way to attract and impress tourists.

JD: Online orders of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle to achieve sales over RMB 10 billion

In addition, Dong Fei, the senior researcher of JD Big Data Research Institute, analyzed and interpreted the consumption portraits and development trends of e-commerce in the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle.

According to JD's big data, Sichuan and Chongqing's total consumption has increased in China's proportion. Among them, Sichuan’s total consumption growth rate ranks first in the country while the total consumption of Chengdu and Chongqing achieved more than RMB 10 billion in a seven-month cycle for two consecutive years.

The products, including Sichuan liquors, Sichuan cuisine, and hot pot, are spreading throughout China, with significant growth from the analysis of online orders from the Sichuan and Chongqing. In comparison, Sichuan and Chongqing products in other categories such as home appliances and digital still have much room for improvement in their national influence. Chongqing becomes the biggest buyer of Sichuan products, while Wuhan is the biggest buyer of Chongqing products.

Besides, since the outbreak of the COVID-19, online orders, such as protective stuff, fresh food, medicines, and more, increased a lot. It is the sign of consumption patterns shifting.

Moreover, from the perspective of the distribution of shopping channels, Chengdu and Panzhihua, consumers' shopping behavior characteristics are similar, which prefers PC rather than APP or WeChat. However, Chongqing’s consumers prefer mobile channels more – Chongqing’s online orders are younger.

Both sides’ allopatric orders are improving.