Paid vacation better than Golden Week

Traffic congestion, over-crowded beauty spots, and pictures of tired travelers in packed stations and airports have triggered a wide-ranging debate over the rationality behind the "Golden Week" National Day holiday, says an article in 21st Century Business Herald. Excerpts:

The week off for many in China is designed to boost domestic consumption.

But statistics show it is failed to do so.

Many local people, and foreign tourists alike, were left disappointed by their experience of this "golden" opportunity to relax, due to limited resources and packed popular tourist spots, that could simply not accommodate so many visitors at one time.

Rather than trying to cope with the enormous demands placed on tourism sites within one week, it would be better to replace this holiday with a more flexible system of paid vacation nationwide.

Such a system would make it easier for more people to organise their vacation plans better, without leading to the type of travel chaos the country experienced last week.

The Golden Week holiday is a poor advert for China's tourism industry, and does little to help the wider economy.

Away from the obvious problems caused across the country by the sheer numbers, the Golden Holiday concept is flawed on another front too.

It fails to help many tourism-related businesses with their most crucial issue: raising consumption.

Nobody is likely to spend money with an empty wallet, even if they have sufficient free time to do that.

So to get the economy going again, the authorities must relieve the public's tax burden and raise pay. 

China's employment market is far from mature, with many workers not having paid vacations.

Boosting domestic consumption is not so as easy as merely giving people a week off, no matter how golden.

It requires changes in various important areas, such as employment and taxation.

The authorities should devise better plans than Golden Week to not only promote domestic consumption, but also ensure more workers can enjoy their vacations easily.