China’s time-honored catering brands have reported excellent business during the recent combined Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday period, demonstrating the robust consumption recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.

A latest report from China Quanjude Group, a traditional Peking roast duck chain, showed that during the eight-day holiday, its total visits and sales revenues surged by 67 percent and 95 percent year-on-year respectively, setting a record high. The outlets in Beijing set a record of having 23,000 tables waiting in line.

Meanwhile, sales and restaurant reviews of Quanjude on e-commerce food delivery platforms such as Meituan-Dianping, Koubei and Ele.me also grew rapidly, data from the group showed.

“For example, in the Qianmen outlet in Beijing, the phone calls for reservations never stopped. At 1 pm, there were nearly 100 small tables waiting in line. As Qianmen is a famous sightseeing spot, there were a lot of tourist families coming to the restaurant. Staff members in the dining hall and kitchen were so busy that they combine lunch and dinner to save time,” said head of the Qianmen outlet of Quanjude.

Data from the Ministry of Commerce showed that during the first seven days of the holiday, the national key monitored retail and catering enterprises saw a year-on-year growth of 9 percent in sales revenue.

A report from Haitong Securities showed that during the holiday, the catering sales surpassed that of retail, and reunion-oriented catering demonstrated a strong growth.

To stimulate new consumption potential, industry experts suggested Chinese catering enterprises to optimize service supply, create more service consumption demands, and explore more experience-based, interactive consumption scenarios.