The idea is that Golden Week makes the travel industry serious profits. Which maybe so. It also totally disrupts travel and puts the country into something of a turmoil. Logically it should be spread out. Logic, sadly, has nothing to do with it.The China Tourism Academy said that this year, with a longer holiday, a record 200 million travelers are set to drop an estimated RMB100 billion ($14.6 billion) on vacations during the week.
The National Day holiday, which falls in the first week of October, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, which this year falls on Oct 3, will together provide an eight-day holiday from Oct 1-8.
Tang Yibo, director of the holiday section with Ctrip.com, a major online travel service in China, said, "Though only one day is added, people will have much more freedom when making travel plans."
Last year, 177 million tourists hit the roads during Golden Week.
China Daily quoted insiders who said the price of tours to overseas destinations usually increases at least 20% during Golden Week, but this year the increase will be around 10%, encouraging more tourists to book vacations. Of course, Golden Week, in theory, could be spaced out not to cause disruptions. The imeages is Guangzhou rail station which can show what can happen in Golden Week. That week can be extended to days throughout the year with advantage. So could Christmas and Thanksgiving day. It ain’t going to happen.
You must log in to post a comment.