It can be said that this year's October was an important turning point for mainland China’s economy, because travel and consumption has become a major trend in people's lives, the quiet entertainment consumer market has finally been revived. Traditional entertainment venues such as cinemas, KTV, FEC, and arcades are on a growth track now, and the operators have adopted innovative ways of operation. The new segments are booming, such as TAKAGISM, LARP, Real CS, theme restaurants, miniature landscapes, VR venues, theaters, surfing venues, esports, Live House, pet worlds, crane machines, mini KTVs, and constant temperature water parks + inflatables, with a number of new games emerging. Aimed at the huge traffic on the expressway on national holidays, Jiangsu province upgraded its expressway service area into a commercial block under the new consumption of "traffic + tourism". By implanting local culture and market resources (cultural & tourism resources, and industrial resources) to enable various types of businesses, the service area will not only become a resting area for tourists to enjoy the high-quality services, but also become a new landmark for tourists' entertainment consumption.

The innovation and upgrade of consumption and entertainment are the signs of prosperity of entertainment and the sign of fierce market competition. The ultimate goal is the competition and redistribution of foot traffic. And every vacancy in the market is a new track and a new opportunity for operators to win the competition. In the past, businessmen fought for the advantaged business circle and location. But now, families and the post-1995 generation have become the core consumer group, they are more likely to have entertainment activities in the evening or at night besides the traditional consumption of busy working days and relaxing holidays.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the evening and night time economy (ENTE) in mainland China has developed from an early light night market to a diversified night consumption market including catering, traveling, shopping, entertainment, sports, exhibitions, and performances. Many cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Nanjing, have introduced policies to promote ENTE. For example, Shanghai allows qualified bar streets to place their tables and chairs outside, and changes part of the road in the midnight snack street and bar street into a time-sharing pedestrian street at certain times of the night. Tianjin proposes to build a batch of evening economic demonstration blocks by relying on characteristic catering streets, food streets, brand catering shops, sports venues, libraries, museums, cinemas, parks, performing arts playgrounds, and so on. In addition to catering, shopping, and city light shows, how to create more diversified and different night entertainment for consumers may become a new track for competition. With the culture of Tang Dynasty as the background, Tang style elements as the main line, and characterized by experience consumption, Xi 'an Datang Sleepless City integrates shopping, catering, entertainment, leisure, tourism and businessES as a whole, with a total construction area of 650,000 sq.m. The project is a typical case of creating multiple entertainment under the night economy.

Shopping, dining, traveling, culture, entertainment, and fitness are six major sectors of the night economy. In order to promote the night entertainment, Hangzhou issued the Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Development of Night Economy in Hangzhou, which first proposed to build gathering areas for night entertainment, integrating 24-hour game rooms, mini-KTVs, crane machines, blind box machines, and vending machines. These gathering areas should be set in areas where tourists, citizens gather and young consumers are active in the evening or at night. In the first three quarters of 2020, the number of highly relevant policies was nearly four times that of the whole year of 2019. Nearly 70% of provincial administrations issued policies to develop the night economy. Urban nightlife experience has become the first choice for night tours in tourist destinations. Performances, cultural venues, and fairs are considered to be the most attractive cultural destinations in the evening or at night. Arts & Culture venues, cinemas / theaters, and night markets / bazaars are considered to be the most fascinating night consumption areas. Trendy night markets, cultural and creative markets, micro-performing arts, and itinerant night tours are becoming important "vitality factors" for urban night economic development. The new forms of entertainment under the night economy will be presented vigorously.
The new track is open, please take your chance!

※The article is published in the GTI Magazine Issue No. 192 in November 2020