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Golden Holiday Week travel getting cold shoulder
As 2005 National Day draws near, people are once again gearing up to plan their week-long long holiday. However, a poll indicates that nearly 80 percent of Beijing citizens said they would not travel outside during the holiday as they did before, perhaps a heavy blow to Golden Holiday Week tourism.
The poll covers respondents in the 18 districts in Beijing. As many as 78 percent said they would rather stay at home with family or friends instead of traveling. They explained that crowded tourist sites and bad service - coupled with high costs - cause frustration and empty wallets. It is easier to relax both physically and spiritually by staying off the road. Actually, the decline of Golden Holiday Week travel was exposed as early as this year's May Day Golden Week, when some domestic travel agencies and railway lines resorted to large-margin price cuts to survive. The Chinese government initiated three one-week long golden weeks in 1999, promoting holiday periods at Spring Festival, May Day and National Day. The idea was to stimulate domestic consumption and create jobs, and the holiday weeks earned trillions of yuan in tourism over the course of the next seven years. With the rising domestic consumption and the emergence of new spending, however, the impetus of holiday tourism is slowing down. On one hand, the signal of declining Golden Holiday Week travel is a mirror of the present status of the domestic tourism. Some tourist sites usually gobble up passenger volume beyond their rational capabilities on holidays. As a result, tourists would feel much less comfortable and tourist sites are likely to raise prices to make a fortune from the crowd.
A Beijing citizen said he felt sick about the poorly equipped hotel room and badly prepared foods he encountered during last year's holiday travels. He is choosing to stay home this year. Experts suggest that a system of annual leave with pay should be more widely implemented to help avoid massive passenger flows that people encounter during the week-long holidays. Now, most employers just wink at the system or convert it into other subsidies despite what is stipulated in the Chinese Constitution and relevant laws. On the other hand, people's conception of the holidays is changing, and they may wish to avoid the crowded, rushed feeling of taking time off when everyone else is on the road. A more comfortable and meaningful holiday without the rush could become the preference of many.
Some poll respondents said they plan to travel to their city¡¯s suburbs in private cars instead of traveling far away by train or air. Yet others said they will invite friends home for private parties. Simple and low cost but easygoing holiday styles are becoming more attractive. Also, recent one-week long holidays have been seeing more and more people -- especially the young -- choosing options like going to bookstores, libraries, lectures, gymnasiums or cinemas. A young couple spent nearly a 1,000 yuan on new books during the May Day holiday period, saying it was much more fruitful than spending money on traveling.
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