More public holidays to stop golden mess

Increasing the number of annual Golden Weeks would meet people's growing demand for travel and prevent the weeklong holidays becoming weeklong messes. People's desire to travel increases as their incomes increase, and that is what has happened in China over the past decade.

At present, China has 11 days each year that are public holidays, which means worldwide it ranks in the middle group of countries, and the public holidays combined with weekends produce two holiday weeks, namely the National Day holiday and the Spring Festival holiday, the so-called Golden Weeks.

As most people tend to go home for family reunions during the Spring Festival, the National Day holiday is the one that sees the most long-distance leisure travel. No wonder it ends up a golden mess each year.

This situation can only be prevented by granting the working population more public holidays long enough to support long-distance leisure travel.

From the economic point of view, bosses also tend to respect public holidays more than paid leave, because the former is easier for the authorities to supervise. Besides, extra work during this time does not bring much more profit. And, more importantly, more Golden Weeks would help facilitate the economic transformation since it would boost the service industry and help realize consumption-led economic growth.

Instead of simply putting more public holidays on the calendar, they should be properly arranged to ensure one Golden Week per season. For example, the beginning weeks in May and August are good candidates for new Golden Weeks.

An increase in the number of Golden Weeks is the best way to sort out the golden messes we face each year.

The author is vice secretary-general of the Beijing Tourism Academy.