Festival to present monthlong activities to boost consumption

Writer: Zhang Yu  | Editor: Stephanie Yang  | From:  | Updated: 2019-07-25


A full month of shopping activities, which are scheduled to be launched across the city in August, are about to give Shenzhen a whole new reason to be cheerful and vibrant.

The 2019 Shenzhen Shopping Festival, from Aug. 1 to 31, will bring over 10,000 brands together to offer local residents and travelers a unique shopping experience replete with promotions and discounts.

Consumers from home and abroad will not only find high-quality electronic products, gold jewelry, apparel, watches, home furnishings and automobiles at the sales bonanza, but can participate in a slew of cultural and entertainment programs, sports activities and special events for youngsters.

The festival aims to further tap into the potential of residential consumption, give full play to the city’s tourism resources as a coastal city, and attract a stronger customer base for local businesses to cultivate new growth points for consumption.

Li Zhuowen, deputy secretary-general of the Shenzhen Municipal Government, said at a press conference yesterday that more than 100 business complexes, 500 large-scale enterprises, 5,000 stores and 10,000 brands in various fields will join in the shopping festival this year.

According to Li, the event will serve as a window to showcase Shenzhen’s commercial achievements, openness and inclusiveness to the world.

“The festival will highlight Shenzhen’s core commercial areas such as Dongmen, Huaqiangbei and Coastal City, showcase the city’s industrial advantages in sectors such as consumer electronics, gold jewelry and apparel, and promote Shenzhen brands and products,” said Wang Youming, head of the Shenzhen Municipal Business Bureau.

Wang said Shenzhen received a total of 139 million visitors in 2018. However, the consumption expenditure of visitors was dwarfed by the number of visitors. Therefore, the festival will fully combine the city’s abundant tourism and shopping resources to present more diverse activities for travelers.

The shopping festival will be an annual event held every August starting this year, according to Wang. Meanwhile, Shenzhen will strive to become an international consumption hub that is suitable for living, working and traveling, and turn the festival into a first-rate shopping event in the country in three to five years.

In 2018, the total retail sales of social consumer goods in Shenzhen reached 616.88 billion yuan (US$89.64 billion), an increase of 7.6 percent year on year, statistics from the bureau showed.