The Spring Festival (lunar New Year) falls very close to the Western Valentine's Day this year. When the two festivals come near, businesspeople and tourist agencies in Kunming choose to promote their sales season with products more related with the Spring Festival than the Western festival.

 

In the past when Valentine's Day arrived, the shelves of all supermarkets in Kunming were filled with chocolate and stuffed animals, gifts that people normally buy during Valentine's Day. This year, however, things like these are rarely seen at this particular time.

 

"New Year's gifts, like alcohol, tea, and other things that people often buy during the Spring Festival have been placed in the most conspicuous places in our supermarket. Yet there is only one stand set aside for Valentine's Day gifts, much fewer than previous years," said Ms. Luo from the Haoyouduo Supermarket in Kunming.

 

Things are much the same in Kunming Department Store, where most goods on sale are related with the Chinese Spring Festival.

 

"The holiday sale (for the Spring Festival) might account for 30-40% of the sales of a whole month, while it is already good enough if sales of the Valentine's Day can take up 10% of the monthly sale," a manager from the department store told this reporter.

 

The Spring Festival holiday can boost the sales of all kinds of goods, while Valentine's Day can promote the sales of only a limited number of things, like cosmetics or women's necessities. Therefore businesspeople rely their sales more on the Spring Festival, he said.

 

For travel agencies that launch a variety of promotion activities during Valentine's Day, the Western festival has also given way to the Spring Festival this year.

 

(Chinanews February 13, 2007)