For Hu Dongcai from Chun'an County, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, the past Spring Festival was the busiest year for online and offline orders for his "Small Cooking Fish Restaurant".

The small shop opened near Qiandao Lake, a tourist attraction. Just after the dine-in peak at 8:00 p.m., the small shop ushered in a wave of takeaway orders, and it was late at night after packing.

Hu Dongcai is just a microcosm of many catering businesses in small tourist towns this year.

　　According to the 2023 Spring Festival holiday tourism data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism a few days ago, there were 308 million domestic trips during the Spring Festival holiday, a year-on-year increase of 23.1%.

The "tourism fever" has also led to the "catering fever" in various places.

According to data from Meituan Food Delivery, during the Spring Festival holiday, the volume of food delivery orders in tourist towns increased by 68% year-on-year.

The tourist town has returned to its former bustle, and the joy of consumption recovery has indeed infected many catering businesses.

Local delicacies popular with tourists

　　This Spring Festival, with the increase in the number of tourists in Qiandao Lake, the takeaway boys are busy shuttling on the plank road on the lake, delivering food to tourists.

Fish head is a local specialty of Qiandao Lake, and it is also a must-order meal for foreign tourists.

On the takeaway platform, in many consumers' picture reviews, there is a milky white takeaway fish head soup, and the "background" is Qiandao Lake.

(Picture: Takeaway riders deliver meals to Qiandao Lake Scenic Area, photography: Wang Zhi)

　　"During the Spring Festival, the highest price per customer in the store was more than 800 yuan. It should be a meal ordered by a company that rented a villa by Qiandao Lake for group building." After resigning from the hotel and starting a business, "Small Cooking Fish Restaurant" Hu Dong is the only chef in the shop.

During the Spring Festival, the small shop is open from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, and it will be nearly 12:00 after packing up.

Hu Dongcai is in charge of cooking, and his family members help in the store, serving and packing the food.

Hu Dong felt that with the authentic materials and his many years of catering experience, the business of the small store will be even hotter in 2023, "Because the bustle is back, our store will get better and better."

　　It is understood that the circle around Qiandao Lake is about 140 kilometers, and it takes a long time for tourists to circle the lake.

"Many tourists don't want to leave the hotel after sightseeing in the central lake area, so they order takeaway in the hotel. In addition, the takeaway brother can deliver things to the lake. When tourists are tired of shopping, they can directly wait for the takeaway at the same place. Continue to play." Hu Dongcai believes that takeaway is very important for both businesses and tourists.

Ma Yongxiang, the person in charge of Meituan Food Delivery in Chun’an County, said that in order to ensure the transportation capacity, the site provides rich subsidies for riders to stay on the job. When merchants are too busy because of too many orders, they will also arrange riders to help.

"Spring Festival stalls" small town tourism drives takeaway boom

　　The Spring Festival movie "Man Jianghong" was released, and Tangyin County, Anyang City, Henan Province was well-known by more people.

The enthusiasm is not limited to movies, but tourism and catering are also popular in the local area.

"In the first two months, I really didn't expect the Spring Festival to be so prosperous!" Tangyin County "Old Town Li Malatang. Malatang" is a new store that has just opened for two or three months.

This Spring Festival, the boss Jiang Bin felt the popularity of the "Spring Festival stalls" for tourism and catering in the county.

During the Spring Festival, in addition to the dine-in customers are full, the store also sells hundreds of bowls of Malatang takeaway every day, with different meat and vegetable sets, and many orders are sent to hotels and B&Bs.

　　"I spent a busy and fruitful Spring Festival." Chen Xing is a takeaway rider in Tangyin County who has run orders for more than three years.

Knowing that there is a subsidy for running singles during the Spring Festival, his cousin, who went to college in other places and returned home during the winter vacation, also worked as a part-time rider under his introduction.

According to their observations, the movie "Man Jianghong" made the Yuefei Memorial Hall in Tangyin County popular in their hometown, attracting many tourists to visit, and many of the orders they sent came from tourists.

(Picture: Tourists order food in the scenic spot, the picture is provided by the interviewee)

　　Guo Xiaoyu, the city director of Meituan Food Delivery Tangyin County, said that during the Spring Festival, Tangyin County gathered tourists from all over the country, and queues and waits at street restaurants can be seen everywhere, and takeaway orders ushered in a substantial increase.

Compared with the Spring Festival of the previous year, the number of takeaway orders in Tangyin County increased by 256%.

The "good start" of the Spring Festival releases the industry's confidence in recovery

　　Invite friends to take a quick trip, Xiao Cheng, a post-90s white-collar worker in Shenzhen, has his wish come true this Spring Festival.

A group of several young people first settled in Kangding City, Sichuan Province.

When she checked in at the front desk of the hotel, she found a yellow desk card at the front desk. In addition to warm reminders, there was also a QR code for Meituan's takeout.

After entering the room, she saw a similar sign beside the bedside table.

"It happened to be my first time in Kangding, and I didn't know what to eat. You can read the ratings and reviews when you order takeaway, and you don't have to go out. You can take a good rest in the hotel before setting off." Xiao Cheng and his friends quickly placed an order for takeaway.

　　Kangding is the throat of Sichuan-Tibet, an important town on the Ancient Tea-Horse Road, and the intersection center of Tibetan and Chinese. During the peak tourist season, it receives tourists from all over the country.

Meituan Waimai has placed such cards in local hotels for the convenience of tourists.

According to Liu Xiaohang, the person in charge of the city, about 80% of the catering businesses in Kangding are foreigners. In the past, many businesses chose to go home during the Spring Festival.

In order to seize this wave of "good start" opportunities this year, many businesses not only did not close their stores, but also increased their business hours.

　　For tourist cities such as Chun'an, Tangyin, and Kangding, during the Spring Festival, the food delivery platform also launched a number of measures to support the business of businesses, and issued red envelope subsidies for Spring Festival promotions.

In order to ensure the delivery during the Spring Festival, the site not only arranged generous subsidies for on-the-job riders, but also recruited returning students to serve as part-time riders.

　　According to data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, during the Spring Festival that just passed, domestic tourism revenue reached 375.843 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30%, returning to 73.1% of the same period in 2019.

The epidemic prevention and control and consumption promotion policies have comprehensively boosted urban and rural tourism consumption expectations, and strongly released confidence in industrial recovery.

According to data from Meituan Food Delivery, the upsurge of returning home and going out for fun during the Spring Festival has driven the rapid growth of consumption in other places, an increase of 76% over the same period last year.

The popularity of "recovery" in small towns continues unabated, and the "good start" of Spring Festival tourism takeaways has injected strong confidence into the business operations of the next year.