DUBBED as “China’s No. 1 electronics street,” Huaqiangbei in Futian District has lured back overseas buyers and orders, as international exhibitions held in Shenzhen have boosted hotel business to accommodate returning and new overseas buyers.

Both hotels and shopping malls in Huaqiangbei are experiencing a significant influx of overseas buyers, who are visiting the Huaqiang Electronics World and various professional exhibitions with orders and procurement needs.

“As international logistics have basically resumed since February, our international orders have gradually recovered, and most counters have received an increasing number of overseas customers,” said an owner of a booth at the Huaqiang Electronics World that sells mobile phone data cables and headphones.

“Most stall owners at the Huaqiang Electronics World have adopted online trading. From sending samples to signing orders, the process has become increasingly mature. Buyers don’t need to come to the site for purchasing. Just yesterday, an Indian customer made an online purchase of a batch of data cables from us,” said the owner, who only gave his family name as Wu.

The flourishing international trade at the Huaqiang Electronics World has also led to a surge in hotel bookings by overseas guests near Huaqiangbei.

“Over the past few months, the proportion of overseas bookings through Agoda, Booking and Airbnb has accounted for nearly 30% [of the hotel’s total bookings],” Wang Zhongbing, general manager of Huaqiang Plaza Hotel, was quoted by Shenzhen Economic Daily as saying yesterday.

Wang said that the hotel experienced a peak in foreign guest check-ins for the first half of this year especially during the tight exhibition schedules in April and May.

Wang observed that overseas guests no longer carry bags full of samples to send back during their stay this year, as they did in previous years.

He attributed this to the wide adoption of increasingly mature online trading model at the Huaqiang Electronics World and the fact that most foreign guests come to Shenzhen mainly for professional exhibitions.

Official data show that from March to May this year, over 50 exhibitions were held at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center and the Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center, including several important international exhibitions such as the 2023 International Rubber & Plastics Exhibition, the China Electronics Information Exhibition and the Global Cross-border E-commerce Exhibition.

It’s not just Huaqiang Plaza Hotel that has benefited from the various exhibitions.

During exhibitions such as the rubber & plastics exhibition, hotels near the Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center such as Hilton Hotel, Hawaii International Hotel and others also experienced a surge in bookings, with hotel rooms being almost full or fully booked every day. In some hotels, overseas reservations accounted for nearly 40% of their bookings.

Wang said that previously, most international exhibitions were usually held in the months of March to May and September to November. With the gradual resumption of Shenzhen’s international flights and continuous expansions of the city’s exhibition capacities, hotels are expected to welcome this year’s largest number of overseas guests in the period from September to November. (Yang Yunfei)