On October 8, China UnionPay released UnionPay’s network transaction data during the 2018 National Day Golden Week. During the “National Day”, UnionPay had its total amount of network transactions reaching RMB 1.58 trillion and its total installments of transactions reaching 794 million with daily average amount and installments of transactions increased by 31.9% and 24.5% respectively compared with those during the last National Day Golden Week. During this 7-day National Day Golden Week, total bank-card cross-bank transaction scale exceeded that during the last 8-day National Day Golden Week, creating a record high compared with National Day holidays in the past.

Travels, friends and family gathering and shopping have always been the main trend of the purchase during Golden Week.

In terms of travels, average daily purchase amount related to aviation, railways, highways, self-driving refueling and other transportation means during this “National Day” Golden Week increased by nearly 50% year-on-year; and average daily purchase amount related to hotel accommodations increased by nearly 60% year-on-year. “Since the National Day holiday is the peak for the travel and the weather in most places of the country is good enough in recent days, it has further enhanced the enthusiasm of people for travel.” data analyst of China UnionPay Chen Han said, “Such places as Henan, Liaoning and Jilin are the regions with the fastest growing average daily purchase of transportation.”

In terms of catering, it is indispensable to visit relatives and friends and have gatherings during the National Day holiday. During this “National Day” Golden Week, average daily purchase related to food and beverages increased by more than 50% year-on-year. In terms of total purchase, the purchase related to food and beverages in Beijing, Guangdong and Jiangsu represented the largest proportion. Purchase related to food and beverages in Guizhou and Shaanxi grew at the fastest rate year-on-year. Since both Guizhou and Shaanxi are well-known for their local cuisine, it is of course essential to have a taste for those returning to homeland and foreign tourists.

In terms of shopping, average daily purchase amount related to shopping during this “National Day” Golden Week, which is dominated by supermarkets, daily necessities, large household appliances and jewelry, increased by over 40% year-on-year. In terms of total purchase, Beijing, Guangdong and Henan ranked among the top three in the country for shopping; and from the perspective of year-on-year growth rate, Beijing, Chongqing and Gansu experienced the fastest growth. During the holiday period, China UnionPay joined hands with more than 3,000 supermarket stores across the country and more than 3,000 food markets to launch the UnionPay Supermarket Festival, the UnionPay Food Market Festival and other large-scale marketing activities in full swing. Since those activities kicked off, UnionPay network transaction volume of supermarkets such as Wu Mart and RT-Mart increased by 2 to 6 times compared with that before launch of those activities, and transaction volume of more than 70,000 food markets and merchants in surrounding living circles increased by 1.4 times as a whole.

During this “National Day” Golden Week, the trend of using mobile payment, driven by diversified marketing activities of QuickPass APP, was further enhanced.

During this “National Day”, with continuous improvement of product popularity and reputation, acceptance market construction at home and abroad became more and more perfect, installments and amount of transactions of QuickPass APP are greatly improved and average daily transaction volume and installments of UnionPay QR Code Payment Service increased by 6.9 times and 36.8 times compared with the same period of last year. During the National Day, QuickPass APP also jointly provided diversified benefits to users in the aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation with industry parties, and provided users with convenient, efficient and affordable mobile payment services. In addition to large-scale marketing activities such as Food Market Festival and Supermarket Festival, users also had the access to UnionPay QR Code Payment Service through QuickPass and other APPs, and enjoyed considerable benefits in multiple scenarios such as public transportation, subway, campus and public payment.

In addition to UnionPay QR Code Payment Service, Huawei Pay, Apple Pay, Mi Pay, Samsung Pay and other UnionPay mobile phone quick payment services also brought a new trend of purchase during the National Day, as a result of which average daily transaction volume and installments during the holiday increased by 70.1% and 102.8% respectively compared with the same period of last year.

The National Day holiday is also the peak for outbound travel. During this Golden Week, overseas transactions paid with UnionPay cards are featured as follows: 1. Destinations for tourists were more dispersed, remote destinations such as Europe, America and Australia were popular among tourists, volume of transactions in emerging destinations such as Mauritius, Morocco, Belgium and Iceland increased significantly, trend of outbound travel in countries along the Belt and Road continued to heat up, and purchase scale in Cambodia, the Middle East and Russia increased by about 30% year-on-year; 2. UnionPay mobile payment products represented by QuickPass APP have been widely favored by tourists, transaction volume featured by the payment products doubled year-on-year, and transaction volume of daily necessities, restaurants, supermarkets, hotels and transportation-related scenarios experienced a particular increase; 3. “Shopping-oriented” travel significantly shifted to leisure travel and deep experience, and purchase of free-travel tourists became more localized, which led to continuous growth of UnionPay card transactions related to transportation, entertainment, supermarkets, restaurants and accommodation in overseas countries.

During the National Day, many tourists shared their overseas card using experience on the Internet, such as the convenience they enjoyed in making payment with UnionPay cards at hotels in Malaysian, popular restaurants in Japan, Outlets in Britain and other merchants as well as their satisfactory card using experience in emerging travel destinations such as Czech Republic, Turkey and Mexico. In addition, UnionPay’s diversified offers and services were also widely welcomed by tourists. Galeries Lafayette Paris provided real-time discounts and tax refund was provided in Spain as long as UnionPay cards were used, which left a deep impression on netizens.