China has rolled out a host of incentives to spur consumer spending, including consumption vouchers to boost spending in the hospitality and catering sectors, while also offering discounts on key purchases such as mobile phones and other tech accessories.
In late September, Chongqing unleashed potential in catering consumption by introducing 360 specialty dishes to its core business districts and created distinctive shopping alleys to boost tourism and drive up sales.
"Today we have two friends coming from afar, from Xinjiang, so we want them to have something different, our local food in Chongqing," said a Chongqing resident.
Since October, many places across the country have issued a new round of consumption vouchers. In Shanghai, consumption vouchers covering catering, accommodation, movies and sports were issued in batches.
Meanwhile, Hubei in the central region has set its sights on young consumer groups and issued 50 million yuan (about 7 million U.S. dollars) of 3C digital product vouchers covering six categories including mobile phones, digital cameras, and study machines, with a maximum discount of 1,000 yuan.
"Since the 3C digital consumer coupons were released on October 16, we found that the sales volume of mobile phones increased by more than 100 percent, and that of digital and Bluetooth headsets rose by more than 60 percent, compared with last year's data," said Deng Yujie, head of the digital branch of the Wuhan Jingdong Mall, a home electronics hypermarket.
Since the beginning of this year, Hubei Province has distributed 120 million yuan worth of consumption coupons for digital product purchase, driving consumption of more than 800 million yuan. It is expected to issue another 30-million-yuan vouchers by the end of this year.
China rolls out promotional activities, incentives to spur consumer spending
