Nighttime offers profitable opportunities

Contrary to the stereotyped impression that consumption at night is usually referring to food and snacks, the iiMedia Research survey shows it covers much wider activities like delivery services, online shopping, and many other cultural and entertainment activities.

"It is a blending of food, shopping, entertainment, tourism, exercise, exhibitions and shows, and the rapid development of digitalization has made consumption more convenient and easier," Zhang added.

The Chinese New Year holiday this year, for example, showed people's consumption at night totaled 379 billion yuan, up 27.06 percent year-on-year and accounted for 33.7 percent of all spending during the holiday, the iiMedia Research report on the nighttime economy showed.

In terms of business, dining and snacks accounted for 28.9 percent of the total spending in the evening, followed by shopping at 28.7 percent, entertainment at 19.9 percent and tourism at 15.8 percent, the report added.

Nighttime economy associated with cultural consumption, tourism and leisure activities has become a strategic part of the nation's economy and social development, Zhao Yijing, head of nighttime tourism research at the China Tourism Academy was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency.

As an extension of daytime traveling, tourism in the evening is gradually taking shape over the past several years.

The nighttime traveling economy could be an effective solution for boosting consumption and activating the domestic economy, said Shen Jiani with Trip.com, adding that summer vacation is the annual peak for traveling in the evening.

Over the past five years, ticket booking volumes during summer vacations for touring scenic spots at night are usually 120 percent that of conventional evenings. Specifically, Trip.com found that tickets booked in July for evening travel swell 138 percent month-on-month, and saw a growth of 165 percent from the previous month in terms of passenger trips.

Discovering this trend, local governments have already tapped into this emerging market by laying out night touring development schemes. More than 200 cities have so far launched their own nighttime cultural and tourism revitalization plans including nighttime traveling routes, performances, arts and exhibitions among others, according to statistics from the China Tourism Academy.

Since the beginning of the year, dozens of Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen of Guangdong province, Wuhan of Hubei province, Chengdu of Sichuan province, Changsha of Hunan province, and Xi'an of Shaanxi province have launched their own policies in supporting cultural and travel activities at night, said Shen.

Despite the strong demand for high-quality nighttime traveling products, the majority of the offerings on the market, however, are focused on traditional dining, drinking and shopping. Therefore, there is a shortage of integrated and high-quality products, Shen added.

"From the supply perspective, there is spacious room for enhancing nighttime cultural and tourism products in terms of diversification, breadth and depth. The high-quality development of the nighttime economy looks for more cultural embodiment," Zhao Yijing with the China Tourism Academy said.

China's large population, its active and innovative online and offline business models, as well as the nation's culture and history, create broad opportunities for the nighttime economy to explode, Zhang Yi of iiMedia Research suggested.

According to Zhang, over the past few years, Chinese people's consumption at night was characterized by an increased proportion of online purchases, rising demand for cultural spending, a smaller gap between eastern Chinese cities and inland areas in the west, as well as robust growth in medium and small cities.