Sources: China Knowledge and China public holidays. Tourism and hotel related stocks have reacted positively to the news that the Golden Week public holidays were being reviewed (see our news post of July 1).Analysis: This positive reaction from travel related companies makes the proposed changes more likely, as the justification for Golden Week public holidays, when they were introduced in 1999, and since then, has always been to stimulate internal consumption in the form of increased internal tourism.
It would seem that travel and tourism analysts feel that Chinese people have gotten used to traveling to their family of Golden Week holidays, and that reducing the number of days for each of these public holidays from 7 days to 3 days, will not make them stop traveling. Clearly they are hoping that some people will also travel on the other new public holidays as well. As most travel is to family members' homes, little hotel business is generated during these Golden Week public holidays and analysts probably hope that shorter holidays will mean more short-distance travel to hotels. In any case, as the number of days of public holidays in China would remain the same, hotel stocks have not been otherwise hit.
Recall that the changes under consideration, to begin in 2009, would have the week-long May Day public holiday would be shortened to one day and the October National Day public holiday to two days. In compensation for these shortened public holidays, the Mid-Autumn Festival would be made into a public holiday as well as 2 other traditional festivals.
The shortening of "Marxist" (or at least not traditionally Chinese) public holidays, to elevate traditional Chinese festival holidays, and Confucian festival holidays, to the status of full public holidays, follows a trend initiated in Hong Kong, where the Chinese Central Government hinted that it would allow for the replacement of one of the current public holidays with one for the Birthday of Confucius (see our news post of April 23).
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