■ Liu Feifei

Tianjin has implemented the spirit of the National Two Sessions and listed expanding domestic demand and promoting consumption as a key task in 2024. The time waits for no one, and aims to accelerate every opportunity.

During the just-past Qingming holiday, the cumulative sales of 431 commercial and circulation enterprises monitored by the Tianjin City Municipal Bureau of Commerce totaled 980 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.4%. The total passenger flow during the three days of the holiday reached 7.41 million, a year-on-year increase of 33.6%. The city's total comprehensive passenger transportation volume is 18.246 million, with an average of 6.082 million passengers per day, an increase of 42.00% compared with the same period in 2023. On April 5, the single-day passenger traffic volume of Tianjin's rail transit network reached 2.3117 million passengers. On April 6, the railway passenger traffic volume reached 479,400 passengers, both reaching new highs this year. The passenger flow of multiple subway lines simultaneously set historical records.

Spring flowers are blooming and using flowers as media has not only become an important theme for Tianjin to promote the spring economy during this holiday, but also made Tianjin City, which is full of flowers, live up to the development momentum of the flowers.

-01-The sea of flowers, people, cultural tourism explodes

In the past few days, the crabapple flowers on the five major roads have blossomed in full bloom, stretching for thousands of meters, attracting a large number of domestic tourists and becoming the most popular "check-in place" during the Qingming Festival. Tourist buses and tourist vehicles from other ports from Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and even Inner Mongolia and Hubei can be seen everywhere. Tourists took photos one after another at check-in places such as "Tianjin" themed curtains, flower walls, and crabapple verse walls. Literary and artistic formats such as Mianli Miniature Art Festival, Youzuo Coffee Cart, and Minyuan Square Concert have been well received by tourists. Cultural and creative products such as "Youdu" and "Guan Zao" Tianjin dialect refrigerator stickers and Wudadao Begonia Ice Cream are selling well. During the three days of the holiday, passenger traffic on the road network around the five major roads increased by more than 80% year-on-year, and consumption increased by more than 30% year-on-year. Driven by the Begonia Flower Festival, the catering market around Wuda Avenue and Jinjie is booming and one is hard to find. Food near Wuda Avenue has become the top spot on the hot search list.

In Hongqiao District, around the blooming peach blossoms, the annual Canal Peach Blossom Festival also transforms the beautiful scenery of April into actual consumption. "I took Chinese culture in college and learned about Hanfu. Today, I finally put it on. I specially put on beautiful makeup and took a photo with the beautiful peach blossoms." Jin Fang, an international student from Vietnam, said that after more than a year in China, she has fallen in love with it deeply. The more she understands, the more she feels that China is infinitely charming.

The unique charm of Jincheng cuisine has also attracted the attention of tourists coming to Tianjin. Delicious foods such as bean root candy, donkey rolling, peach blossom crisp, hawthorn pot helmet, peach blossom cultural and creative ice cream have been praised by everyone."This bean root candy I eat is getting more and more fragrant. It's very delicious. I will definitely bring it back to my family to taste the taste of Hongqiao cuisine." Mr. Tang from Hubei said.

Major business districts have become extended places for flower viewing and outing consumption. Consumer facilities such as natural history museums, science and technology museums, and art galleries are experiencing peak passenger flow, and the number of visitors who make reservations for full-time reservations is full early. Jinnan District collaborated with the Green Action Box Commercial District to hold the Begonia Flower Blooming Culture and Art Festival, attracting a large number of young and middle-aged consumers, and passenger traffic increased by more than 50% year-on-year. In Binhai New District, combining the themes of ocean and hiking, the Marine Museum has opened the "Meeting Blue Tears" to watch the ocean exhibition. Nankai Middle School launched a campus flower viewing activity for parent-child study, patriotic culture and the 120th anniversary celebration, attracting a large number of appointments. Thousands of people entered the school that day, becoming a highlight of the linkage between culture, education and business travel during the holidays.

-02-Strong consumption and good integration

While the city coordinates transportation and passenger travel guarantees and improves cultural and tourism supporting infrastructure in advance, it also plans to warm up in advance to make it easier to cope with the peak of cultural and tourism in spring.

"'Spring flower viewing economy 'has become a highlight and hit in the integrated development of culture, business and tourism in Tianjin.' Dali Taoist Temple Begonia 'not only appeared on CCTV, but also was written into the municipal government work report." According to Li Hao, member of the Standing Committee of the Heping District Committee and executive deputy district mayor of Tianjin City, the Begonia Flower Festival on the one hand highlights the cultural quality of the city and creates an immersive "Begonia Feast" that integrates flower appreciation, performing arts and experience; On the other hand, amplify economic benefits, make good use of Begonia IP, use flowers as a medium, develop themed cultural creations, meet various needs of "food, accommodation, travel, shopping and entertainment", and turn the explosive "traffic" into an "increment" of the economy.

From "cultural tourism +" to "+ cultural tourism", Tianjin has formed a new regional urban-oriented, youthful and humanistic tourism development model.

Focusing on themes such as hiking, flower viewing, camping, and sports, various regions in the city have carefully planned since the warm-up of the holidays, and have held a series of activities such as music performances, cultural and creative markets, costume catwalks, and discount promotions to provide citizens and tourists with colorful flowers. Rich consumption scenes.

Not only that, around the holidays, works on topics such as "I'm waiting for you at Hongqiao Peach Blossom Causeway","Begonia Music Festival","Meet on the Five Major Roads to admire flowers and eat delicious food" and "Jincheng Hard Core Breakfast" were posted on Weibo and Douyin the same city hot search list, which has attracted the continuous attention of netizens and set off a check-in craze among surrounding tourists and citizens.

At the same time, major commercial carriers in Jincheng have launched various types of "flower names" curatorial businesses, and exhibitions and shows have been linked to each other, from "flower shopping","cultural and creative exhibitions" to "music festivals","art exhibitions" and "snack streets", all of which have become a strong carrier for holiday citizens and tourists. According to statistics, the city's 82 department stores, shopping centers and outlets achieved cumulative sales of 470 million yuan over the three days of the holiday, a year-on-year increase of 19.8%, and the passenger flow was 6.237 million, a year-on-year increase of 43.5%.

Experts believe that Tianjin relies on its local characteristics and advantages to cultivate and tap potential consumption, create a new consumption pattern with diversified consumption scenarios, multi-level consumption experiences, and multi-point support, actively cultivates consumption growth points such as national trends and cultural tourism, and attracts domestic and foreign consumption. Gathering, fully releasing consumption potential, is a powerful practice to expand domestic demand and promote consumption.