Ninety Million Travelers, US$4.17 Billion Spent
During National Day Golden Week
More than 90 million travelers criss-crossed China and
spent US$4.17 billion during the recent October 1 National
Day golden week holidays in China. This is an 11.5 percent
increase over the same period last year.
During this holiday period,Chinese workers are given
one week off, and domestic and foreign travel is encouraged.
China has three large annual holiday periods: during the
Chinese New Year in January or February depending on the
lunar calendar, Labor Day on May 1 and October 1 for the
National Day holiday. The Golden Week holiday, which is
roughly modeled on the Japanese practice, was introduced
for the first time in October 1999, to encourage Chinese
to travel and spend tourist dollars. At the time, China's
economy had slowed down, and the government wanted to
encourage Chinese to spend their savings.
It has only been canceled once, and that was this year,
because of the SARS crisis.
Chinese government statistics suggest that since their
introduction, 700 million tourists have traveled, spending
more than 291.8 billion yuan, or US$35.24 billion dollars.
Lately however, economists have started urging the government
to abandon the Golden Week holiday model, and have urged
companies to adopt the paid leave model which is popular
in developed countries. This practice, they argue, would
spread the vacation periods more evenly over the calendar,
and would not add to price inflation, hotel congestion
and flight shortages over the year.
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