The seven-day holiday week has become a virtual opportunity for the
development China's tourism market despite disputes about the rationality
of the "Golden Week, " which has exerted great pressure on transportation,
catering and hotel and tourism infrastructures, according to relevant
experts.
China now has three "Golden Week" holidays in the year -- Spring
Festival, International Labor Day, and National Day. This new holiday
scheme was set up by the Chinese government in 1999 so as to boost
domestic demand, stimulate consumption, and restructure the economy. As
the prolonged holidays turned out to be "golden" for the economy, they
became known as "Golden Week".
According to statistics published by the National Tourism
Administration (NTA), during this May day holiday, China received 121
million tourists, 16 percent higher than last May day holiday, with
tourism income rising by 20 percent to 46.7 billion yuan (US$5.64
billion).
"It is the pressure caused by the 'Golden Week' since it was launched
seven years ago that boosted the rapid development of such industries as
transportation, civil aviation, catering and hotel," said Liu Yibin, an
economist.
With the unbalanced development of China's economy, those "Golden
Weeks" have offered great opportunities for economic restructuring and
employment expansion in popular tourist destinations, said Liu.
Furthermore, as a holiday scheme set up by the Chinese government,
"Golden Week" holidays also act as a guarantee for employees of private
enterprises in China to enjoy their holiday rights to some extent, said
Liu.
According to Jiang Mingcheng, a master in tourism economics, China's
family tourism mode will not change from the current sight-seeing mode to
the mode of enjoying a real holiday until the per capita GDP (Gross
Domestic Product) reached US$3,000 ten years later.
But the existence of the "Golden Week' system is
acting as a powerful measure to protect and nurture
the tourism by the Chinese people and to
regulate the development of China's tourism market, said Jiang.
Problems arising in golden weeks basically result
from the imbalance between rising demands for tourism of the Chinese
people and deficient
supply, said Huang Ziqiang, an economic analyst.
Instead of canceling the "Golden Week" system to restrain demand, China
should increase supply to boost the development of the tourism market in
an orderly way, said Huang.
Although China has boasted an annual tourist sum of more than one
hundred million, the goal for the Chinese government in setting up the
"Golden Week" system is to make all the 1.3 billion people of the country
to enjoy a holiday, including consumers in towns and rural areas, said
Huang.
As a response to disputes over the "Golden Week" system, the NTA wrote
"deepening reforms of holiday tourism, with 'Golden Week' as the emphasis"
into its recent programming of China's tourism industry.
(Xinhua) |