Beijing services sector set for recovery

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

After Beijing reported no new COVID-19 cases for three consecutive days, the services sector from retail vendors, travel agents, delivery drivers to restaurant owners, were awaiting a much-anticipated recovery in the coming months. 

"Once the coronavirus is fully contained in Beijing and banquets are allowed, liquor sales will boom," Song Zongheng, who owns Beijing Yongsheng Cigarette and Liquor Co, was quoted as saying as he remained positive about the city's service sector revival. 

However, restaurants were more cautious about a quick recovery as the latest outbreak of COVID-19 started in the sprawling Xinfadi wholesale food market, infecting vendors and some restaurant workers who purchased food supplies there. 

The owner of a Sichuan restaurant in Beijing's Chaoyang district said that their customers had only recovered to half of its capacity and the recent outbreak had brought another blow to the city's catering industry. 

While dining-in services were hurt, many people who were laid off found work with couriers and food delivery companies thanks to the city's broad 4G and 5G coverage, which enabled mobile delivering platforms. 

"After the epidemic, delivery orders are surging now,” a deliveryman surnamed Zhang who works for Meituan-Dianping, an online food delivery platform, remarked. Some people in the tourism sector are struggling to pay their office rent while others refuse to close their business. 

Jia Jianqiang, CEO of 6renyou, an online tourism agency in Beijing, informed that the company had shifted its core business from arranging overseas trips to domestic service. 

Online travel agency Trip.com shared that flight reservations by Beijing residents for July and August, summer vacationing time for students, were the highest among cities in China. 

The Chinese guesthouse booking platform Tujia said that the bookings from Beijing surged four times after the capital city as the residents leaving the city no longer required a proof of negative COVID-19 test result. It estimated that bookings will recover up to 70 percent in the summer vacation. 

In 2019, the service sector had contributed 87.8 percent to Beijing's economic growth, having played a pivotal role.