Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporter Hei Hongwei) news: As the Spring Festival approaches, the festive atmosphere grows thicker in every corner of Xinjiang. Local commerce departments across Xinjiang have joined hands with merchants to organize a series of New Year activities, boosting the pre-festival consumer and cultural-tourism markets to a new round of prosperity.

On January 15, 2025, at a local shopping plaza in Urumqi, a wide variety of New Year goods and an array of festive decorations filled the shelves. A local resident, Zhang Xiaoyi, was busy selecting festival supplies, her shopping cart packed to the brim. "The Spring Festival is coming up, so I've bought some beverages and nut gift boxes for friends and family, as well as festive decorations and fruits, all in preparation for the holiday," she said.

Photo taken on January 13, 2025 shows a supermarket in Urumqi full of the flavor of the Spring Festival in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/Hei Hongwei)

Malls and supermarkets across Xinjiang have all switched to Spring Festival mode. A mall operations manager in Urumqi introduced that their mall has created a one-stop "New Year goods area," which includes tens of thousands of products, ranging from food to daily necessities, all available to make it easy for customers to prepare for the festival.

To stimulate consumption, the regional Department of Commerce has implemented a range of policies and measures aimed at promoting consumption and benefiting the public. Among these, the 2025 consumer goods trade-in policy, which commenced on January 1, 2025, and spans the entire year, has significantly spurred a comprehensive upgrade in pre-festival spending. Additionally, several automotive brands have also launched promotional activities.

Photo taken on January 12, 2025 shows a car of BYD Xia officially launched in Urumqi, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/Hei Hongwei)

As the Spring Festival approaches, the market for New Year's Eve dinner reservations in Xinjiang is booming. Data from e-commerce service platforms such as Meituan and Dazhong Dianping show that since December 2024, the search volume for keywords like "Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve dinner reservation" and "Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve dinner package" has increased by more than three times compared to the same period last year.

Compared to offline events, the online New Year's goods festival started earlier and has a longer duration and wider coverage. As early as December 12, 2024, livestreaming activities for the Spring Festival were launched in Urumqi, and the event will continue until February 2025.

On the morning of January 12, 2025, livestreamer Xu Siyao was selling a variety of high-quality Xinjiang agricultural products such as red dates, walnuts, and cheese buns to netizens across the country.

"The positive review rate and repurchase rate for Xinjiang’s agricultural products are extremely high. Many of the orders placed in the livestreaming room come from regular customers. This time, for the Spring Festival, we have launched a variety of Xinjiang’s specialty, making it convenient for consumers to purchase," said Xu.

From ski resorts to hot spring resorts, from ice and snow festivals to winter food festivals, winter cultural and tourism projects are emerging everywhere. Xinjiang has created "ice and snow +" scenarios to activate new cultural and tourism consumption, attracting a large number of tourists to experience them.

According to data from Meituan Travel, since December 2024, the search popularity for Xinjiang's "skiing" and "ice skating" and other ice and snow tourism-related terms has increased by 191 percent month-on-month, attracting a large number of tourists to experience the charm of ice and snow.

"The estimated passenger flow for the 2024-2025 snow season is expected to increase by 30 percent year-on-year," said Huang He, deputy general manager of Xinjiang Silk Road Mountain Resort. The resort is actively expanding the tourism consumption industry chain, constructing multiple dining areas, shopping plazas, and characteristic homestay hotels, providing one-stop consumption services for tourists.

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