China's booming "sheconomy"
Xinhua, March 9, 2017 Adjust font size:
WOMEN DOMINATE TOURISM, COSMETOLOGY
Data show women are the main driving force of China's tourism market.
According to data released by Lvmama.com, an online travel agency, the number of outbound Chinese tourists rose by 75 percent during last year's Christmas and New Year holiday, and more than 70 percent were women.
Female consumers put more emphasis on the flying experience. Female passengers accounted for 45 percent of the total business class and first class reservations in 2016, an annual growth of 4 percent.
China's medical cosmetology industry took 550 billion yuan in 2015, and is expected to reach 1 trillion yuan in 2019, when China will surpass Brazil to become the world's second largest medical cosmetology market, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics.
Consumers aged between 18 and 40 are the major consumption groups, and 90 percent are female.
Analysts say that female consumption demand is conducive to industry innovation.
Shanghai-based Jinjiang Hotel, one of the largest star-rated hotel group in China, launched smoke-free rooms in 2007, which are popular with female consumers.
On March 1, the city started a ban on smoking in indoor areas of hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues, as well as public transport.
"The attempt at smoke-free rooms in our hotels fully prepared us for the strict smoking ban, which showed sound business innovation is driven by women consumption," an employee of the hotel group said. "Products and services should not only meet the demand of women consumers, but display appreciation and understanding to women, thus supporting the growth of the sheconomy."
CHANCES FOR VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
The rising of the sheconomy comes from the income increase of female employees and the promotion of women's status in the workplace.
At Amazon.cn, 50 percent of managers and above are women.
"Female staff enrich our teams' wisdom and enhances our company's creative ability," said Zhang Wenyi, president of Amazon.cn.
The number of female students studying for an EMBA rose from 32 percent in 2013 to 38 percent in 2016, and female students studying for an MBA increased from 34 percent in 2015 to 43 percent in 2017, according to Antai College of Economics and Management of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.