Guangzhou Chinese New Year's Eve meal reservation is the first in the country

Hotel Chinese New Year's Eve meal reservations are gradually peaking Photo courtesy of the interviewee

Yangcheng Evening News reporter Literature and Art

Correspondent Wang Xingzhou

The Spring Festival is approaching, and the preparation of Chinese New Year's Eve meal has become an important reunion theme for people. The reporter learned from Fliggy data that as the Spring Festival approaches, hotel Chinese New Year's Eve meal reservations in low-risk areas under the new crown pneumonia epidemic are gradually entering a peak.

In the past week, the number of hotel Chinese New Year's Eve meal-related products has increased by more than 2 times month-on-month, and Guangzhou's reservation popularity ranks first in the country. It is worth mentioning that in addition to the classic table meal form, hotel buffets, self-service, pre-made dishes, etc. have become the new trend of Chinese New Year's Eve meals in the Year of the Tiger.

Buffets, pick-ups, and pre-made dishes are popular

With the renewal of the New Year's eve, the hotel Chinese New Year's Eve market has derived new characteristics of segmentation. In addition to the traditional style of sitting around a round table, the variety of buffets with flexible dining times has become a new choice for more young people to gather or relax during the Spring Festival.

In addition, the demand for less gathering and safer experience has made "contactless self-pick-up Chinese New Year's Eve meals" also become popular, which means that in addition to the in-store experience, the home scene has also become a fulcrum for hotel service consumers. Many five-star hotels have launched Chinese New Year's Eve meal pick-up or takeaway services. The pre-made dishes and potted dishes launched by various hotels have also ushered in new growth due to the characteristics of fast and convenient.

Taking the food town of Guangzhou as an example, Guangzhou White Swan Hotel, Guangzhou Poly Intercontinental Hotel, Guangzhou Baiyun Hotel, Guangzhou Elegant Hotel, etc. have launched Cantonese-style New Year pot dishes, cornucopias and other special Chinese New Year's Eve rice, and many hotels can Chinese New Year's Eve rice to be enjoyed at home or takeaway. Lin Zhenhai, deputy general manager of Guangzhou White Swan Hotel, said that due to the increasing number of people staying in Guangdong for the New Year, this year's Chinese New Year's Eve has added a lot of authentic food from all over the country. In addition to the hot Michelin restaurant reservations, the dinner buffet is also very popular, and the three Chinese restaurants are currently fully booked. In addition, this year also launched a number of "room + catering", "room + yacht" and other combination products, it is expected that during the Spring Festival, the sales of related products in the White Swan Flying Pig flagship store will increase by 25% year-on-year.

Fanny, banquet sales director of InterContinental Guangzhou Poly, said that this year, a number of new Spring Festival packages for local guests have been added, especially "room + catering", such as the buffet restaurant Chaoshan beef hot pot theme set, lobby lounge Chinese red theme afternoon tea, etc.

The "hotel New Year tide" has risen, and local consumption has dominated

In previous years, the mainstream customers of hotels during the Spring Festival were mostly foreign tourists who came to vacation, but under the background of normalization of epidemic prevention and control, foreign tourists decreased, and local tourists became the protagonists. Especially in first- and second-tier cities, the Spring Festival will present a different scene from the past - the "empty city" is no longer there, but the sense of New Year ceremony is not reduced. According to the preliminary survey of the Ministry of Commerce, in 2022, the number of local New Year's celebrations in 36 large and medium-sized cities across the country increased by more than 48 million compared with previous years.

Therefore, the local in-depth gameplay is more concerned by consumers, and the hotel May become a New Year custom. The reporter visited and found that due to the early arrival of the New Year this year, in low-risk areas, the Chinese New Year's Eve meal packages of many five-star hotels started earlier than last year, and some five-star hotels have been "difficult to find a table".

Ms. Cheng, the public relations officer of Holiday Inn Hangzhou Longhu Binjiang Tianjie and Crowne Plaza Hangzhou Longhu, said that the hotel's Chinese New Year's Eve meal packages were booked from December 1 last year, and the local guests in the booking crowd accounted for more than 80%, and the rest were mainly guests from Shanghai and other surrounding areas who came to Hangzhou for vacation. This year, the "Chinese New Year's Eve meal + 5 rooms" package was launched for the first time, and the market response exceeded expectations.

Li Bin, deputy dean and associate professor of the School of Tourism Science of Beijing Second Chinese University, believes that the hotel Chinese New Year's Eve meal is mainly aimed at the local market and is mainly based on the consumption demand of local customers. It is expected that the hotel Chinese New Year's Eve meal market during the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger will perform better than last year. Hotel and online travel enterprises need to innovate in the local cultural themes of catering products and services, fashionable and creative product design and packaging, capture the new consumer demand of young consumer groups, small and medium-sized family groups, and help boost the Spring Festival tourism consumption market.

Source: Yangcheng Evening News