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Take a break from the financial crisis

By Li Wenfang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-18 09:29

In a poll to find out the holiday habits of nearly 2,000 Chinese people by leading online travel firm Ctrip, 64 percent said they would travel during their paid vacation time this year. Around 40 percent said they would take breaks during the Spring Festival and National Day holidays, while 24 percent said they would take short holidays and 35 percent were planning to travel on weekends.

Cyclists set off for a trip around West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Oct 12 last year for the launch of the first bike tour around the city's picturesque feature. The event drew more than 200 people from home and abroad. [Li Zhong/China Daily]

Meanwhile, the public's rush to get their hands on money-saving vouchers offered by several cities looking to boost visitor numbers has also been making headlines.

Shanghai residents queued from the early hours of the morning at various distribution points on March 1 for some of the latest batch of coupons worth 9 million yuan ($1.3 million) issued by authorities in Hangzhou, a picturesque city in Zhejiang province. One bank was even reported to have erupted in chaos when the waiting crowds stormed forward to be served after officials revealed they were running out.

The tourism bureau in Suzhou, a scenic city in Jiangsu province, also cancelled plans to hand out 100,000 similar vouchers on the streets of Beijing on March 7-8 for security reasons, instead authorizing the information center of the capital's municipal tourism administration to issue them through random lucky draws between March 25 and May 31.

In Hangzhou, one coupon has a face value of 10 yuan, with each tourist entitled to a maximum of 200 yuan in vouchers. They can use one with every 40 yuan in cash spent on tourist sights, hotels, restaurants, bars and various entertainment shows between March 1 and May 31.

The municipal tourism commission predicted that out of all the coupons issued, so far worth a total of 150 million yuan, if just 40 percent are used it would rake in around 1 billion yuan in revenue for the city from 1 million tourists.

Similar schemes worth 1 billion yuan were launched across the Yangtze River Delta, while cities in Guangdong, Sichuan and Shandong provinces also issued more than 50 million yuan in coupons, said Gao Shunli, an official for the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA).

He hailed the coupons as a innovative way to combat the global financial crisis and boost tourism consumption, adding they also help raise confidence in the market.

Lu Ming, a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, agreed and said the coupons helped stimulate the economy in the short term, citing a marked increase in visitors to Tonglu, a small city near Hangzhou, over the Spring Festival break, many of whom had coupons, reported Xinhua News Agency.

But although they may help those already planning holidays to choose their destination, some have questioned the real impact the vouchers have on domestic demand, as well as over costs and potential wastage.

It is not unfair to say that a minority of the people who queued for hours to collect the coupons simply wanted something for free and have no intention of using them. Some even sold them on, leading to a call for the distribution system to be reviewed by Li Gang, a professor at Shanghai Normal University.

He wants them to be made more available for those unable to queue for hours and said the conditions of use could sometimes be too complicated.

But despite the arguments for and against, the vouchers will be one of the main priorities for national tourism authorities this year, while the industry would also strive to lift domestic demand by experimenting with tours given as rewards by employers, extra credit for travelers and more discounts, said Shao Qiwei, chairman of CNTA.

Authorities will also push forward plans for increasing countryside tours, the National Travel and Recreation Program and promoting employment through tourism, he added.

On the much-anticipated national program, which was first raised in 2007 and is meant to better manage the abundant leisure time of Chinese people with increasing wealth, Gao at the CNTA said that now was the best time to launch it.

People in China enjoy an average of 115 days in national holidays and weekends every year, as well as five to fifteen days of paid vacation, while the annual per capita gross domestic product hit $3,266.8 last year and is expected to approach $4,000 next year. Large cities like Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and Hangzhou have even recorded higher growths.

And despite the challenges posed by the financial crisis, including the marked decline in inbound travel, the fundamentals of China's tourism sector remain in place and momentum is still robust, Shao assured.

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