Insight into the consumption trend of Meituan’s May Day holiday in 2023： Taste bud tour, immersion and integration of living and playing lead the new trend.
Zibo, Weihai, Nanjing and other cities are hard to find a "room", and the online booking volume of restaurants nationwide has increased by 205% compared with the same period in 2019 … The holiday consumption of May Day has shown a strong growth momentum and is expected to become the "most prosperous May Day" in the past five years. Less than a week before the May 1 holiday, Meituan data shows that the keyword search volume related to holiday consumption and travel such as "hotel", "vacation", "tickets" and "food" increased by 313% compared with the same period in 2019. "Taste bud tour", "immersion" and "integration of living and playing" have become the new trend of holiday consumption on May 1 this year.
"Taste bud tour" has become a new trend of tourism consumption, and the number of online reservations for dining in the country has increased by 205%
Move because of "eating" and swim for "eating". This year’s "May Day", a "taste bud tour" that goes to distant places to eat and drink happily has become a new choice for young people to travel during holidays.
"After being planted with pig’s feet by The Knockout, I came up with the idea of going to Jiangmen. Taking advantage of the small holiday, I arranged Jiangmen’s itinerary one month in advance, and also selected the special restaurants of local rice rolls and ricefield eel rice in public comments. " Mr. Xu from Beijing decided to spend his May Day holiday with a "hurricane" on the taste buds.
According to the data of the US Mission, the number of accommodation reservations in small towns featuring food such as Jiangmen, Zibo, Taizhou, Liuzhou, Zigong, Chaozhou, Shantou and Yanji increased significantly compared with previous years. Taking Chaozhou and Shantou as examples, as representative cities of Cantonese-style catering culture, the number of accommodation bookings in Chaozhou and Shantou increased by 1,200% during the May 1 ST period compared with the same period in 2019.
Not only is it a characteristic food city, but the overall catering industry in China is also expected to usher in a wave of business peaks during the May 1 holiday. According to the data of the US Mission, as of April 23, the number of online reservations for "May 1" restaurants nationwide increased by 205% compared with the same period in 2019. The hottest cities for restaurant reservation in advance are Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Chengdu and Shenzhen. In terms of categories, in addition to traditional popular cuisines such as hot pot, Cantonese cuisine, western food and Japanese cuisine, the bookings of special local cuisines such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine, Beijing cuisine, Hunan cuisine and Northeast cuisine have increased significantly, which has become a new trend of catering consumption this year.
▲ "Taste Bud Tour" drives the increase in the number of online reservations for restaurants in China.
Wang Yin, marketing director of Hutchison Small Dishes, an old chain restaurant brand in Shanghai, said, "The online reservation for the May Day holiday has exceeded 60%, and the private rooms have all been fully booked. In addition to old customers, the passenger flow of individual customers in different places in downtown stores has increased significantly. " In order to meet the "May Day" passenger flow peak, the restaurant also began to actively prepare. "We will increase the stock of popular group-buying package dishes such as braised pork, shredded eel and fish head, and the reserve of raw materials will increase by more than 30% than usual." Wang Yin said.
In addition, this year’s Black Pearl restaurants in Changsha, Jinan and Wuxi, the newly listed cities of Black Pearl, have also become the first choice for tourists to punch in their food. The number of online views has increased by more than 120% compared with that during the Spring Festival, among which the online reservation rate of Junting Chinese Restaurant in Changsha Black Pearl Diamond Restaurant has increased by 550% compared with the same period of last year. Wang Yong, general manager of the restaurant, said, "This year’s online booking cycle is obviously ahead of schedule, probably at least five days earlier than in previous years."
The search volume of immersive gameplay increased by 194%, and "cross-border train tour" and "Hanfu experience" were favored.
This year’s "May Day", the train has become a popular choice for tourists to travel. According to the data of Meituan, the order volume of train tickets on April 14th has reached twice the peak in Spring Festival travel rush this year, and "going abroad by train" has become a highlight of the May Day holiday.
Inquiries on the ticket purchase page of Meituan show that the international passenger train "Kunming, China-Vientiane, Laos", which just started in April, has sold out the train tickets on April 28th, 29th and 30th. Miss Deng from Kunming grabbed two train tickets in advance and planned to take the popular route of "Ershua" with her family during the May Day holiday. "This is an’ immersive’ experience of going abroad. The broadcast service and passenger information on the train are available in Chinese, Lao and English. There will be special performances on the high-speed rail for appreciation, and the scenery along the way outside the window is also beautiful. " Miss Deng said.
▲ The "Kunming-Vientiane" train ticket on April 29th has been sold out.
The squash court played a hearty game, the magic club enjoyed the immersive magic talk show, and the tufting shop made an original work by itself … This "May Day", with new features and new ways of playing, was highly praised. According to the data of Meituan, in the past week, the search volume with the keywords of "May Day" and "immersive gameplay" increased by 194% compared with the previous week.
Among them, the new type of immersive play represented by "Hanfu Experience" is favored by more and more young people. According to the data of Meituan, as of April 23, the search volume of "Hanfu Experience" increased by 280% compared with last year, and Xi ‘an, Luoyang and Suzhou ranked among the top three search hotspots. Taking Luoyang as an example, tourists wearing Hanfu "crossing" punch cards can be seen everywhere on the street. Chang Yun, the head of Hanqing Pavilion Hanfu Experience Store, said that the number of tourists who came to the store to experience "cross-dressing" this year was several times higher than when it first opened.
▲ "immersive" gameplay has become a popular choice for young people on May 1 this year.
Zibo leads the top ten cities with full occupancy rate, and the booking volume of "live+play" hotel packages has increased by 70%.
During the May Day holiday, accommodation in popular cities has become a scarce product, and it is hard to find a room in many cities. According to the data of Meituan, as of April 23rd, Zibo, Weihai, Nanjing, Dali, Wuhan, Yanji, Changsha, Lijiang, Jingdezhen and Jinan have become the top ten cities with the highest occupancy rate in China.
"Living and playing" has become the May Day choice of many consumers. Hotels and B&Bs are also constantly enriching their experiences, so that tourists can stay comfortably and have fun. Meituan Hotel selects the special gameplay from all over the country, seamlessly connecting the play scenes with the accommodation scenes, and bringing visitors a holiday experience of "living and playing all over". During the "May Day" period, hotel packages that integrate one-stop experiences such as eating, living and playing were popular, and the booking volume increased by 70% week-on-week.
▲ The top ten cities with full room rate in China are released, and the one-stop package for eating, living and playing is welcomed by consumers.
Entering Chashan, setting tea seats, visiting tea events, and tasting culture … Tea-scented Full House B&B is located in the national tourist resort at the foot of Wuyi Mountain. "Nowadays, people are not satisfied with seeing the mountains and water, but also want to play with culture and characteristics." Mr. Zhou, the landlord, is a national first-class tea art technician and a first-class tea evaluation technician. In addition to meeting the needs of living, he will also provide tea art and floral experience activities. From April 29th to May 2nd, all the rooms in Chaxiang Manwu B&B are fully booked, most of which are from Meituan.
Ticket bookings in many popular scenic spots have increased significantly. The booking volume of tickets in the week before the May 1 holiday in Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park is 6 times that in the same period of 2019. During the May 1 holiday, the booking volume of tickets is about 13 times higher than that in 2019, and the proportion of foreign tourists has increased from 50% to 70%. As of press time, the Altman Theme Hotel is almost full.
▲ Shanghai Haichang Altman Theme Hotel is booked hot.
"Top flow" flowers continue to drive panda fever. Chengdu research base of giant panda tried out the measures of real-name reservation for the whole network and time-limited inflow into the park. From 1:00 am on April 23rd, tickets for the 7th day including that day can be booked through platforms such as Meituan, with a daily limit of 60,000 tickets. The booking of museum tickets is in short supply. A public comment netizen concluded that it is recommended to log on to the online platform in advance, enter the information of the booking person and open the "open for sale" message reminder to improve the success rate of grabbing tickets.
In addition, in order to better meet the needs of tourists’ outbound travel, based on the 50% discount coupons for hotels in Hong Kong and 50% discount coupons for hotels in Macau, Meituan has launched new activities such as "50% discount coupons for overseas hotels" and "Good prices don’t have to be compared". Consumers can book ultra-low-priced overseas hotels such as Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea and the Middle East at Meituan.
This year is a year of boosting consumption. In order to better boost consumption vitality and stimulate holiday economy, before the May Day holiday, Meituan will also jointly launch consumer voucher projects with relevant departments of cities, districts, counties or streets in Shenzhen, Fuzhou, Chengdu, Yinchuan, Tianjin, Ningbo and Chongqing, covering restaurants, hotels, take-out, flash purchases, shopping malls, scenic spots and other categories, thus bringing "again" to the general public and tourists.
"This year’s’ May 1 ST’, not only the number of tickets, hotels and ticket reservations in scenic spots has increased significantly, but also the trendy gameplay including taste bud tour and immersion tour has emerged, which has greatly enriched the travel experience of tourists." Li Jiwei, vice president of Meituan Research Institute, said that the centralized release of the demand for May Day travel will boost the consumption of life service industries in various places, which is also a reflection of the good trend of China’s economy. (Yang Liting)