Hotel bookings grew, flower sales surged and restaurant orders jumped as young Chinese couples celebrated the Qixi Festival, or the Chinese Valentine's Day, which fell on Thursday, helping boost consumption as the COVID-19 outbreak has been brought under effective control.

Analysts noted that the spending rise during the festival indicated that China's economic recovery continues to gain momentum.

Industries related to the "romance economy" including catering and tourism, saw significant growth with surging orders a week before the festival.

Data from Chinese online travel agency Qunar.com showed that the number of guests who made hotel reservations for Thursday increased by 70 percent compared with the previous day, and young people were the main force behind hotel bookings.

According to a report sent to the Global Times, Trip.com noted that overall domestic hotel bookings and star-rated hotel bookings during the festival were up two-fold compared with last year.

Data from e-commerce platforms showed that on Monday, more than 1.5 million flower orders were shipped from flower markets in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, a major supplier of the country's flowers, China Media Group (CMG) reported. 

Two days before Qixi, the number of orders for bouquets increased three-fold from last week, with bouquets of 11 red roses the most popular gift, meaning "love for a lifetime."

Restaurants and theaters also witnessed growth in consumer activity. Data showed that as of Wednesday, total pre-sale box office orders for the Qixi Festival 2022 had exceeded 66 million yuan, the CMG reported. 

Orders for advance bookings for restaurants also increased significantly compared with last year. Several major cities - including Nanjing, Chongqing, Changsha and Wuhan - led the increase in eatery orders, rising by more than 100 percent.

In addition, necklace, lipstick, perfume and wine also saw rising demand. In recent weeks, lipstick sales increased 103 percent year-on-year, gold jewelry sales grew 280 percent, fashion watch sales surged 400 percent and sales of fashion accessories surged 120 percent. 

Global Times