China: Officials promote long weekends to boost tourism

A longer weekend could ease overcrowding on the transport network and at tourist attractions, officials say

China's government wants workers to be given longer weekends during the summer in order to boost the tourism industry, it's reported.

The State Council is urging employers to give their staff Friday afternoons off so that they can travel more easily, the Xinhua news agency reports. Allowing people more flexibility would also "greatly ease the pressure on the transportation, tourism, commercial and catering sectors," says Wu Wenxue, deputy head of China's National Tourism Administration. Many attractions are overrun with tourists during public holidays because people either don't have, or don't take, annual leave at other times.

Chinese workers are entitled to paid holiday, but the amount varies according to how long they have been employed. Those who have worked for less than 10 years receive just five days, plus public holidays. That rises to 15 days for people with 20 years of work under their belts, but in practice many employees feel they can't take any time off for fear of being seen as lazy.

The idea of longer weekends has been met with scepticism on China's Sina Weibo social networking site. "I work in the private sector - the boss won't give me any time off!" says one user, while another accuses the authorities of being "divorced from reality". But one person indulges in a little wishful thinking. "Public service workers have to do overtime - a whole month of rest would be good!"

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