State Council releases holiday arrangements early

Social media platforms in China are buzzing with talks about the Spring Festival holiday arrangement of 2024 which was just released by the State Council on Wednesday morning.

According to the State Council, the Spring Festival holiday of 2024 - the traditional Chinese festival for family reunion - lasts eight days from Feb 10 to Feb 17, and it encourages government bodies and companies to give employers a paid leave on Feb 9 - the eve of lunar New Year.

The release of the holiday arrangement has driven a surge of tour products searches on travel portals. The online travel services provider Qunar said that searches for train tickets and international flight tickets doubled at its platform just in 30 minutes after the arrangement released. It said that some "early birds" in Shanghai and Changsha in Hunan province have made bookings at the platform.

Long-distance destinations both domestically and those overseas will be main attractions for travelers to spend the holiday, as experts and travel agencies expected. Qunar said that Sanya in Hainan; Dali in Yunnan and Beihai in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region are the most searched domestic destinations on the platform, while visa consultancies to overseas destinations including Australia, Spain and Switzerland have registered a remarkable growth after the release of holiday arrangement.

Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, said that the State Council released the holiday arrangement much earlier this year to give a positive response to the society.

"Previously, the holiday arrangement of the coming year is usually published in late November or early December of current year. What's more delightful is that the State Council encourages employers to allow their employees to get a paid leave on Feb 9 - the eve of the lunar New Year, following the paid vacation mechanism," he said.

He said that the time arrangement for the Spring Festival holiday is a balanced plan which can let people take trips, avoid traffic peaks and secure a safer and well-organized operation of the tourism market. He expects that the Spring Festival holiday will see a surge in travel activities and consumption.

The holiday arrangement by the State Council also includes holiday time of another seven traditional holidays in 2024 such as the Tomb-sweeping holiday from April 4 to April 6 and the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday from Sept 15 to 17.