People snap up televisions eligible for the renewed trade-in subsidy program for consumer goods in Huaying, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, on January 19, 2026. With the program taking effect and the Spring Festival approaching, the city's home appliance market is drawing crowds and recording surging sales, ushering in the first consumption boom of 2026. Photo: VCG

A total of nine government departments and entities announced a special action plan to boost consumer spending during the upcoming Spring Festival holidays, which will last for nine days, becoming one of China's longest holidays ever.

Related government departments should improve working mechanisms, enhance coordination and synergy, and ensure that the consumption-boosting events deliver tangible results, according to a notice issued on Monday by government departments including the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the People's Bank of China.

They will strengthen market monitoring during the festive period, leverage comprehensive tools such as big data for multidimensional analysis and evaluation of the effectiveness of the events, and provide a holistic reflection of the Spring Festival consumption market situation, per the circular.

The Spring Festival holiday is traditionally a peak season for consumption, with people visiting families, traveling and splurging on various goods and services.

The 2026 Spring Festival travel rush, or chunyun, officially started on Monday. China State Railway Group Co said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Monday that China's national railway network is expected to handle 540 million passenger trips during the 40-day period, averaging 13.48 million trips per day, up 5.0 percent year-on-year.

The action plan called for local governments to center on core needs such as traditional customs, family reunions, shopping, and travel, and focus on areas including the debut economy, digital consumption, green consumption, smart consumption, consumption on health, and inbound-travel consumption.

By integrating business, tourism, culture, sports, and health, and coordinating online and physical efforts, these initiatives should aim to expand the supply of high-quality goods and services, enrich diverse consumption scenarios, stimulate the vitality of physical businesses, and better meet the people's aspirations for a better life, per the circular.

Detailed measures to boost consumption were advised for the catering, lodging, traveling and tourism sectors. For instance, transport authorities were advised to offer facilities for people participating in winter sports and traveling with ski gear, while key retailers will hold fairs to boost sales of related products, and high-quality global products are encouraged to be included into sales channels to complement people's festival spending choices.

Sun Chuanwang, a professor at Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Monday that policy directives issued by the Chinese government have highlighted the importance that policy-makers place on accelerating the growth of domestic consumption.

"China's consumption sector is expected to gain further traction as local governments are expected to introduce consumption stimulus policies, focusing on optimizing or innovating consumption scenarios, tapping into local resources, and creating differentiated experiences to better meet consumers' demand for high-quality services," Sun said.

Localities are also encouraged to maintain the momentum of consumer goods trade-in programs covering vehicles, home appliances and digital and smart products during the festive period. 

Financial institutions are encouraged to collaborate with key merchants to plan Spring Festival events, offering promotions such as red envelopes and instant discounts to expand the reach of these activities. The use of digital yuan red envelopes will also be encouraged.

In response to market demand, the circular stipulated that additional capacity should be allocated to international flight routes, and "aviation + cultural tourism" products should be offered for foreign tourists visiting China, while key scenarios should be prioritized to continuously improve the payment environment, including cards, mobile payments, and cash services, for inbound tourists.

Last month, a top official of the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, said that the agency will in this year start to study and formulate an action plan to expand domestic demand from 2026-2030, to "guide new supply with new demand and create new demand through new supply" by providing strong innovative measures and other types of support.

The Central Economic Work Conference, held in December, stipulated that expanding domestic demand would be the top priority of China's economic policy in 2026.

On January 16, a State Council executive meeting mulled measures to boost consumption by accelerating the formation of new growth points in services consumption, the Xinhua News Agency reported.