Haidilao served over 14 million customers during the 9 days of Chinese New Year: Young people take charge of Spring Festival, creating more diverse reunion scenes.

In the Spring Festival of 2026, young people have become the "hosts" of the festival, bringing new scenes and new connotations to the traditional reunion festival, and also driving changes in the way of Spring Festival gatherings. From the Chinese New Year co-branded products to regional flavors, HAIDILAO carries on the scene of reunion HAIDILAO, as a familiar dining scene for many young people, appeared frequently in the Spring Festival gatherings in 2026. HAIDILAO's backstage data shows that during the 9-day holiday from February 15th to 23rd, HAIDILAO's stores nationwide received over 14 million customers. During the Spring Festival, HAIDILAO created a New Year atmosphere in its stores around family reunions, gatherings with friends, etc., through store decoration, interactive activities, and festive new products. For example, HAIDILAO launched the "My Little Pony" horse-themed Chinese New Year series activities, enriching the dining experience in the store during the Spring Festival period through co-branded desserts, themed children's meals, and interactive games. Some HAIDILAO stores in certain cities also launched differentiated Chinese New Year products: inspired by the spring festival theme of "purple coming for good luck", some stores in Hangzhou introduced three "purple fortune dishes" such as "Purple Cabbage for Prosperity" and "Fortune 7-Color Potatoes"; some stores in Nanjing introduced a carp-shaped flower-shaped bun, allowing customers to feel the festive atmosphere during their meal more vividly. In addition to co-branded activities and regional flavor products, HAIDILAO's exploration in innovative store scenes also attracted high customer traffic during the Spring Festival. The HAIDILAO daidang hotpot store in Nanning Wanda opened on February 21st (the fifth day of the Lunar New Year), and the store's popularity was outstanding. Since the opening of the first store in Guangzhou, HAIDILAO daidang hotpot stores have successively landed in cities such as Shanghai, Wuhan, Qingdao, Fuzhou, and Nanning, with active customer traffic during the Spring Festival period, and hundreds of tables waiting at some times. After the end of the Spring Festival holiday, the demand for gatherings continued. From February 23rd to March 2nd, HAIDILAO launched the "First Meal Back to Work, Come to HAIDILAO" promotion in several locations, where customers could enjoy a 15% discount on dishes with return travel vouchers from the Spring Festival holiday. It is hoped that before and after the return to work or school, the continuation of companionship in transitioning from the holiday to daily routine adds a warm sense of ritual to the start of the new year. The person in charge of HAIDILAO stated that as young people gradually become the "hosts" of Spring Festival arrangements, the frequency of HAIDILAO's presence in their lives is also increasing familiar dining scenes on weekdays, more family reunions and gatherings with friends during the Spring Festival holiday, and the return to the city after the holiday, has become the choice for many people's "first gathering after returning to work". From returning home for reunion to "North-South exchange", diverse ways of celebrating the Spring Festival drive active customer traffic in stores From family dinners to parent-child trips, customers during the Spring Festival value "reunion" and "festivity", and the trend of young people introducing their familiar dining style to their elders is becoming a new year arrangement for many families. Zhang, a member of HAIDILAO's Black Card Club in Shanghai, returned to her hometown of Yuzhou, Henan for the Chinese New Year this year and took different relatives and friends to HAIDILAO for 3 meals, even having the New Year's Eve dinner there. She initially worried that her parents would not be accustomed to it, but later found out that they were the happiest, making her plan to book HAIDILAO again next New Year's Eve. The person in charge of HAIDILAO in Henan region mentioned that many HAIDILAO stores in tier 3 cities have met the dual demand of "returning home for family gatherings + local leisure consumption", leading to a higher customer flow during the Chinese New Year this year, with some stores in Zhoukou, Nanyang, Zhumadian, and Jiaozuo receiving over 2,000 customers daily during the Spring Festival period, and the total number of customers received during the 9-day Spring Festival in the province exceeding 900,000. The trend of "North-South exchange" remains the mainstream way of traveling during the Spring Festival, with Guangdong, Fujian, and Hainan becoming ideal destinations for many families to travel and reunite during the Spring Festival. The total number of customers received by HAIDILAO stores in Guangdong Province exceeded 1.7 million. Cities like Shantou, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, and Zhongshan were bustling with tourist leisure and visits from relatives from other cities, leading to a significant increase in customer flow at HAIDILAO stores in the days leading up to the holiday, with Suining Plaza and Dongshan Life Plaza stores receiving over 2,000 customers daily. This Spring Festival, first-tier cities are no longer "empty", as many families have chosen to celebrate the New Year in their work cities, and even brought their parents from their hometowns to reunite. HAIDILAO stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and other places saw an increase in daily customer flow during the Spring Festival compared to last year. Behind the "reverse reunion" trend is the changing understanding of the "New Year atmosphere" by young people. The New Year atmosphere is not only found in hometowns but also where family reunions take place. Bringing parents to celebrate the New Year in the cities where they work and live, having a reunion meal together, is becoming a new scene of the Spring Festival. This kind of "reunion in the workplace" scene during the Spring Festival is not only seen on the customer side but also in the families of frontline employees who worked during the holiday. During the Spring Festival, HAIDILAO initiated the "Warm Winter Camp" activity nationwide, aimed at the children of frontline employees celebrating the New Year in a different city. The activities included store-based learning, New Year crafts, food making, outings, family bonding, etc., allowing the families of frontline employees to also enjoy more companionship and reunion moments at their workplace.