Chongqing - During the past five-day May Day holiday, the city's major commercial districts and trading enterprises under performance monitoring registered a 26.8% retail sales increase to 12.475 billion yuan from the same period last year, according to the Municipal Commerce Bureau.

This year's May Day holiday, or the Chinese Labor's Day, lasted from May 1 to 5, which created another "golden week" travel rush after the Spring Festival holiday. As a result, many local citizens and visiting tourists chose to vent their pent-up consumption desire by spending money in the city's various scenic spots, star hotels and restaurants, shopping malls, and entertainment facilities.

To meet the rising consumer demand, the counties and districts organized many sales promotional activities and events during the May Day holiday.

Yuzhong District reported a 38% retail sales increase year on year, thanks to the series of activities under the "Interesting Yuzhong, Go with the Trend" themed 2021 Chongqing Yuzhong Chinese Fashion Season Campaign; Rongchang District reported a 24% retail sales increase year on year by hosting an automobile and motorcycle festival, a children exhibition, an electrical appliance festival, and a house decoration festival; Shapingba District reported a 19% retail sales increase by exploring new consumer models and organizing online and offline pro-consumption campaigns.

The city's major trading enterprises under monitoring also launched various sales promotion campaigns to boost their revenue, making the holiday another peak time for consumption after the World Consumer Rights Day, which falls on March 15th each year.

The CBEST Department Store and the New Century Department Store jointly launched the "Universal Attraction of Fashion" themed consumption festival, which claims to provide "zero yuan purchase," "early bird group buying," "and discount on discount" options for certain products. Meanwhile, Supermart giant Carrefour and electrical appliance retailer GOME also introduced holiday promotion policies that enable customers to enjoy up to 50% discount for almost all sales products. What's more, the 2021 Chongqing International May Day Automobile Exhibition held during the height of the holiday also attracted tons of visitors and potential buyers to attend. As a result, an estimated 800-million-yuan sales revenue was reported for the city's major carmakers under monitoring, representing an 18% increase year on year.

Also benefiting from the recovered domestic tourism industry are the city's scenic spots and restaurants. It's been reported that the city’s A-level scenic areas received a total of 10.20 million tourist visits during the five-day Labor Day holiday, representing a whopping 146% increase year on year and exceeding the pre-pandemic level in 2019 by more than 10%.

The Chongqing Locajoy Theme Park organized a "Locajoy 20th Anniversary" Photograph Exhibition, the Chongqing Happy Valley Theme Park held a Rhino Music Festival, the Meixin Red Wine Town introduced a spinning hot pot, a library pavilion, and specialty bed-and-breakfast packages, the Jinfo Mountain Scenic Area also attracted tons of visitors with some brand-new performance items.

The city's "happy farmhouses," a form of rural tourism facility that provides bed-and-breakfast services in the countryside, reported a 57% increase in turnover year on year during the May Day holiday. The happy farmhouses in Fuling District, Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, and Qianjiang District even registered a 96%, 93%, and 78% turnover increase year on year, respectively.

While the city's key restaurants under monitoring also reported an average increase of 187% in turnover year on year, with such brands as Taoranju Chongqing Dishes and Morals Village Hot Pot registering a 197% and 111% increase in turnover from the same period last year, respectively.