Haidilao welcomes over 14 million customers during the 9-day Spring Festival period: Young people take the lead in celebrating the Spring Festival, making reunion scenes more diverse

In the 2026 Spring Festival, young people became the “Spring Festival Hosts,” bringing new scenes and new connotations to the traditional family reunion holiday, and also driving changes in the way people gather for meals during the festival.

From New Year joint collaborations to regional New Year flavor products, Haidilao uses the “Festive Feel” to connect with gathering scenes

As a familiar scene for many young people’s daily dining, Haidilao appeared more frequently during the 2026 Spring Festival dinner gatherings. According to data from Haidilao’s backend, during the nine-day holiday from February 15 to 23, the company’s nationwide stores served over 14 million customers.

During the Spring Festival, Haidilao created a festive atmosphere around scenes such as family reunions and friends’ gatherings through store decorations, interactive activities, and new seasonal products. For example, Haidilao launched the “My Little Pony” Year of the Horse New Year series, featuring co-branded desserts, themed kids’ meals, and interactive gameplay, enriching the in-store dining experience during the holiday.

Some cities’ Haidilao locations also introduced differentiated Spring Festival products: in Hangzhou, some stores drew inspiration from purple ingredients and the auspicious meaning of “Purple Qi Coming East, Wishing for Good Luck,” launching three “Purple Prosperity Dishes”: “Purple Fortune Cabbage,” “Purple Qi Prosperity,” and “Colorful Potatoes for Wealth”; in Nanjing, some stores offered koi-shaped steamed buns, making the festive atmosphere more visually apparent during meals.

In addition to collaborations and regional New Year flavor products, Haidilao’s innovative exploration of store scenes also attracted high customer flow during the holiday. For instance, Haidilao’s large hotpot stall at Jiangnan Wanda in Nanning opened on February 21 (the fifth day of the Lunar New Year), with outstanding popularity. Since opening its first store in Guangzhou, Haidilao’s large hotpot stalls have gradually expanded to cities like Shanghai, Wuhan, Qingdao, Fuzhou, and Nanning, with active customer flow during the holiday, sometimes waiting in line for hundreds of tables.

After the holiday, the demand for gatherings continued. From February 23 to March 2, Haidilao launched the “First Meal After Returning to Work, Come to Haidilao” campaign in multiple locations, offering customers 15% off on dishes with proof of return travel during the Spring Festival holiday, aiming to accompany everyone through the transition from holiday to routine and add a warm ceremonial touch to the start of the new year.

A representative from Haidilao stated that as young people gradually become the “main organizers” of the Spring Festival, their presence in daily life is increasing—what was once a familiar dining scene now also hosts more family reunions and gatherings with friends during the holiday. After the holiday, returning to the city also becomes a popular choice for many for their “first gathering after returning to work.”

From hometown reunions to “North-South exchanges,” diverse ways of celebrating the New Year boost store traffic

From family dinners to parent-child travel, during the Spring Festival, customers value the sense of “reunion” and “festivity” more. Young people are bringing elders to experience familiar dining styles, becoming a new tradition for many families. Ms. Zhang, who works in Shanghai and is a Black Card member of Haidilao, returned to her hometown in Yuzhou, Henan, for the New Year, taking different relatives and friends to dine at Haidilao three times. “Even New Year’s Eve was spent at Haidilao. I was worried at first that my parents wouldn’t be used to it, but in the end, they were the happiest, and I already booked Haidilao for next New Year’s Eve.”

A senior manager from Haidilao’s Henan region said that many second- and third-tier cities within the province have also embraced the trend of “returning home for family dinners and local leisure consumption.” This year’s holiday saw high customer flow, with some stores in Zhoukou, Nanyang, Zhumadian, and Jiaozuo exceeding 2,000 customers per day during the festival. The entire province welcomed over 900,000 visitors during the nine days of the holiday.

“North-South exchanges” remain the main travel pattern during the Spring Festival, with Guangdong, Fujian, and Hainan becoming popular destinations for family travel and reunions. Among them, Haidilao stores in Guangdong served over 1.7 million customers. Cities like Shantou, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, and Zhongshan saw active performance driven by tourism, family visits, and inter-city movement. In the days before the holiday, all five Haidilao stores in Shantou experienced significant increases in customer flow, with the Suning Plaza and Dongshan Life Plaza stores averaging over 2,000 customers daily.

This year, first-tier cities were no longer “ghost towns.” Many families chose to spend the New Year in their work cities, even bringing parents from their hometowns to reunite. The daily customer flow at Haidilao in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen increased compared to last year. The “reverse reunion” reflects a changing understanding of “festive flavor” among young people. The New Year spirit is not only in hometowns but also where loved ones gather. Bringing parents to live and celebrate in the city has become a new scene for the holiday.

This “gathering at work” scene during the Spring Festival is not only visible to customers but also extends to frontline employees’ families who work during the holiday. During the holiday, Haidilao launched the “Warm Winter Camp” activity nationwide for employees’ children, organizing in-store learning, New Year crafts, food making, outdoor study trips, and family bonding activities for employees working away from home, allowing their families to enjoy more companionship and reunion moments in their work locations.