Enfoque financiero | ¿Cuál es la clave para la vitalidad económica en la primavera?

Xinhua News Agency Beijing, April 7th — Title: What is the key to the vitality of the spring economy

Xinhua News Agency reporters Tang Tao, Cai Xinyi, Xiong Xu’an

Gentle spring breeze, everything revives, and the cultural and tourism market also welcomes its “spring”. During this year’s Qingming holiday, the number of travelers exceeded 840 million, with multiple activities such as parent-child trips, nearby tours, and long-distance travel overlapping. Several popular flight routes saw ticket sales increase by over 40% year-on-year.

To accommodate the flow of passengers, various regions continue to introduce new consumption scenarios, from flower field concerts to low-altitude flower viewing, from using flowers as a medium to celebrating festivals and making friends, forming a spring consumption landscape that links urban and rural areas and integrates different formats.

Industry insiders believe that how to continuously innovate supply models and improve service quality, achieving a dual pursuit of “appearance” and “value,” will be the key to maintaining the vitality of the spring economy.

Consumption scenarios continue to heat up

Another Qingming season, in Xixi Wetland, Hangzhou, the themed event of Flower Festival arrives as scheduled. The twelve “Flower Gods” lead hundreds of Hanfu enthusiasts to perform rituals and start a parade, with 105 types of flowers and nearly 80,000 flower pots blooming in turn in the wetland park, outlining a beautiful spring scene of Jiangnan.

A report released by Tongcheng Travel shows that during this year’s Qingming period, traditional rural tours, flower viewing trips, mountain climbing tours, and other spring-themed activities remain the most popular. Various places continue to unlock “N ways to enjoy spring,” attracting people to a spring appointment.

In Shenjia Mountain Cherry Blossom Valley, Malong District, Qujing City, Yunnan Province, over 400 acres of cherry blossoms are in full bloom, turning the entire valley into a pink ocean. “The cherry blossoms are especially beautiful all over the mountain, and there are various activities to participate in. I had a great time,” said tourist Yang Yuting, who drove from Kunming specifically to enjoy the flowers, holding a newly purchased cherry blossom cultural and creative product.

If flower viewing is the springtime stage for artistic youth, then the “foodie” spring is hidden in all kinds of fresh flavors. Currently, spring fresh ingredients are in season, and people in Shaanxi, eager to taste new flavors, carry bamboo baskets and small shovels, digging for white Artemisia, picking alfalfa, and searching for shepherd’s purse, turning these wild spring vegetables into seasonal delicacies.

Small green rice balls are considered one of the most distinctive taste symbols of Qingming. “I like the bamboo shoot and snow vegetable filling, and my family prefers sweet flavors. Every spring, I buy different kinds of green rice balls to try,” said Lu, a resident of Hangzhou. Data from Dingdong Maicai shows that before and after the Qingming holiday, the platform’s overall spring vegetable sales increased by 20% year-on-year, and the concept of “eating in season” is increasingly popular.

Folk customs and intangible cultural heritage also light up the spring economy. “Qingming silkworm flower, the more lively, the better the harvest,” is a long-standing folk saying. In Tongxiang, Zhejiang, this has evolved into a folk event called “Qingming Silkworm Flower.” During the parade, “Silkworm Flower Fairies” ride flower boats to scatter silkworm flowers, with a grand scene of praying for a good harvest, full of the romance and liveliness unique to Jiangnan.

Lin Shanshan, associate professor at Zhejiang University School of Management, Department of Tourism and Hotel Management, said that from spring scenery to spring food and spring customs, the spring economy is no longer just about “flower viewing,” but a seasonal expansion driven by activities such as outdoor outings, short vacations, outdoor leisure, intangible cultural heritage and cultural innovation, rural consumption, and spring sports, continuously heating the cultural tourism market.

Multiple efforts release the surging momentum of the spring economy

Interviewees said that the vitality of the spring economy is not only due to the seasonal demand release but also inseparable from efforts by various regions to innovate consumption formats and smooth consumption channels, injecting strong momentum.

— Emotional value guidance. The rise of the spring economy is a two-way pursuit of emotional and economic value. The fresh green and fragrant aroma of spring directly meet many modern people’s “emotional needs” for close contact with nature.

In Shaoxing, Zhejiang, the 480-acre colorful rapeseed flowers stretch into a sea, with visitors holding phones to capture the golden scene, some sitting in pavilions singing together, others sitting quietly on benches basking in the spring sun. “I just wanted to take photos, but I didn’t expect to camp and experience tea picking. The kids had so much fun they didn’t want to leave,” said visitor Wang. For her, the sea of flowers is no longer just a scenery to glance at and leave, but a spring destination where she can stay, experience, and savor.

From “instant check-in” to “emotional collection,” this spring, major brands have launched limited-edition spring makeup and traditional Chinese clothing, scenic spots have carefully designed stamp card activities for cultural and creative exchanges, and farmers have created seasonal gift boxes with spring flavors. These measures, by strengthening the sense of “exclusivity” and “collectible value,” cleverly turn the natural urgency of “missed it for a year” into current consumption driving forces.

— Business format innovation. The continuous heating of the spring economy depends on innovative breakthroughs in consumption scenarios. In Chongzhou, Sichuan, hotpot is set up in the rapeseed fields, with tourists enjoying hotpot while viewing flowers, jokingly calling it “eating spring in one bite”; in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, a ticket stub for the Zhejiang Provincial Football League (Wuyue Cup) can unlock a local cultural tourism package for spring outings, including accommodation, sightseeing, and dining discounts.

Many places have also launched “ColorWalk,” themed around spring colors such as cherry blossom pink, rapeseed yellow, and pear blossom white, connecting art installations, specialty shops, and cultural landmarks along the route, turning the entire city into an open spring exhibition. Walking, viewing, eating, and shopping along the way not only boosts local consumption but also allows people to truly immerse themselves in the city.

— Policy support. Since March, many regions have issued cultural tourism consumption coupons, reduced or exempted scenic spot tickets, and launched boutique routes to stimulate market enthusiasm through policy leverage. The railway department has operated “flower viewing special trains,” added intercity trains, and coordinated with local transportation departments to open shuttle lines, connecting the “last mile” of flower viewing.

This spring, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, and other places have implemented spring vacations for primary and secondary schools, significantly increasing family travel, which has also driven a sharp rise in ticket sales, homestay bookings, and scenic spot reservations. Yang Han, a researcher at Qunar Big Data Research Institute, said that the non-adjusted Qingming model combined with spring holiday policies has upgraded the usual three-day short-distance outings into long vacations, smoothing the seasonal fluctuations of the cultural tourism industry and effectively stimulating domestic demand.

From “one-season prosperity” to “four-season spring”

Blooming flowers, but they all have their flowering period. How to sustain the heat of the spring economy remains a challenge for governments and industry practitioners.

Professor Zhang Yi of Zhejiang Tourism Vocational College believes that although the spring economy is booming, it also faces problems such as homogenization, “flower season limited,” and ecological carrying pressure. Innovation,特色立身, and long-term operation are necessary to transform the spring economy from a “one-season boom” to “perennial greenness.”

Zhang Yi suggests that regions should deepen local特色, avoid simple copying, and combine regional ecology, folk customs, and industrial advantages to create differentiated spring cultural tourism IP; extend the industrial chain, promote “flower viewing + intangible cultural heritage,” “flower viewing + planting,” “flower viewing + cuisine,” and “flower viewing + hiking,” to realize the transition from seasonal flower viewing to year-round experiences.

“Whether the spring economy can develop healthily depends on whether tourists can enjoy themselves smoothly, stay comfortably, and buy with confidence,” said Lin Shanshan. Regions should treat the quality of cultural tourism services and the consumer environment as hard constraints, continuously improve public service systems, simplify scenic spot reservation processes, optimize tourism transportation, and enhance service humanization and professionalism.

Only when the spring economy is beautiful in its own way can it flourish together. Liang Xuecheng, director of the Department of Tourism Management at Northwestern University School of Economics and Management, suggests leveraging new technologies such as artificial intelligence to create new spring services, providing immersive experiences that combine virtual and real, deepening and expanding the added value of the spring economy, and offering people unique immersive experiences. (End)