Golden Week holiday benefits outweigh the disadvantages: official

Difficulty in getting train and plane tickets is no reason for abolishing Golden Week holidays, according to an official with the Chinese National Tourism Administration (CNTA).

"Government departments are looking at various options," said Zhang Xiqin, deputy director of CNTA.

"Official holidays could be prolonged. Another possibility would be to link them to other traditional festivals," the deputy director added.

Chinese travelers spent a whopping 73.6 billion yuan (9.6 billion U.S. dollars) during the weeklong Labor Day holiday that ended on Monday. A total of 179 million people went on tour, up 26 percent on last year.

Zhang said the statistics show that golden week holidays benefit people's lives and promote domestic consumption, which is in line with the central government's strategy to rebalance the economy.

Chinese people get national holidays each year. "Golden Weeks" are created by adding the weekends on either side of a 3-day national holiday.

Source: Xinhua