From Golden Week to Paid Vacation

The Golden Week system began on1day of 1999. 1September, 999 18, the State Council issued the national holiday measures for festivals and anniversaries, which extended the holiday time of "May Day" and "Eleventh Day" and added seven weekends around * * *, namely "May Day" and "Eleventh Day" Golden Week. Since then, the "Golden Week" has gradually become a week for people to go out to play. After the May Day Golden Week in 2007, the state reformed the original vacation system and issued relevant policies. Since 2008, Labor Day has been reduced from seven days to three days, and three three-day holidays have been added, namely Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival.

The tropical tourism triggered by the "Golden Week" has promoted the construction and optimization of service facilities such as transportation, scenic spots, catering, accommodation, shopping and security. It has expanded the leisure consumption demand of residents and promoted the growth of the national economy. From the government's point of view, income soared, economic indicators were overfulfilled and evaluation index soared. However, while the Golden Week promotes rapid economic growth, there are also many problems.

First, the scenic spot is overloaded and the environment is seriously damaged.

With the influx of tourists, the passenger flow of many tourist destinations is far greater than the number of tourists and the maximum reception capacity, which makes scenic spots and even tourist routes often overloaded. 20 10,10 On February 2nd, the Forbidden City was overloaded with 50,000 people! The pollution caused by tourists to scenic spots can not be ignored, and many tourists have the bad habit of littering. 10 On June 5th, Focus Interview reported that during the 11th period, the cleaning staff carried a ton of garbage from the Great Wall every day. After a 7-day long holiday, the garbage on Mount Tai weighs more than 100 tons.

Second, there is traffic congestion, and the contradiction between accommodation supply and demand is prominent. During the golden week, one ticket is hard to find.

Although the transportation department has been exploring ways and measures to ease traffic, railways, civil aviation and highways have increased trains and flights before the holiday, during the seven-day holiday, tourists concentrated on traveling and returning, and the passenger flow increased year by year, and the pressure still exists. The more famous scenic spots, the more tourists there are. During the Golden Week, hotels and restaurants are full. Merchants see that the demand is so great, the price is too high, and tourists can do nothing, which greatly reduces the quality of tourism.

Third, the quality of tourism services has declined and complaints from tourists have increased.

The sudden increase of holiday tourists has exceeded the capacity of tourist attractions and local catering and accommodation, resulting in a sharp decline in service quality, improper reception standards and constant complaints from tourists. The contents of tourism complaints mainly focus on two aspects: First, complaints caused by traffic problems. Second, complaints caused by the long distance between service and publicity in the industry.

From the tourists' point of view, the setting of Golden Week only regards people as a tool to stimulate economic growth, lacking the people-oriented concept. According to the Golden Week tourism related data released by the National Tourism Administration over the years, almost all the tourists in the Golden Week exceeded 100 million. For example, the number of tourists during the May 1 Golden Week in 2004 was 65.438+0.4 billion, in 2007 it was 65.438+0.79 billion, and in 2009 it reached 228 million. The number of tourists in the Golden Week has far exceeded the maximum carrying capacity of the existing tourism infrastructure in China. This surge in passenger flow makes tourist attractions crowded, so the Golden Week has become a painful experience for many people. Nowadays, more and more people choose to avoid traveling during the Golden Week. They think that what they can see during the long vacation is not the historical sites of scenery and civilization, but people. I didn't get a good rest when I was tired, and I spent a lot more money than usual. Many white-collar workers choose to stay at home, rest or recharge and learn some simple skills, such as cooking, photography and massage; Some white-collar workers in foreign companies use long holidays to study foreign languages; Watch some movies or novels that you don't usually have time to watch. Really relax. Some people choose to take the initiative to apply for overtime during the Golden Week to earn three times their usual salary.

The consequence of this is that after every Golden Week, there will be rumors that the Golden Week system will be cancelled. After the cancellation of the May Day Golden Week, some people speculated that the Golden Week system would be cancelled soon. These concerns are caused by China's long-term inability to effectively implement the paid vacation system. 1994 promulgated the "labor law" article 45 clearly stipulates: "the state implements the paid annual leave system. Employees who have worked continuously for more than one year enjoy paid annual leave. " However, due to the lack of detailed implementation rules, the right to leave granted by law to workers has not been implemented. 5438+February 2007 "Regulations on Paid Annual Leave for Employees" stipulates that "employees who have worked continuously 1 year or more enjoy paid annual leave", and stipulates that the personnel department and labor and social security department of local people's governments at or above the county level shall supervise and inspect the implementation of paid annual leave by employers. However, due to the difficulty in implementing relevant labor laws and regulations in China and the disparity in rights between employers and employees (especially between private enterprises and migrant workers), many employees still can't really enjoy the statutory leave right.

The adverse effects of "Golden Week" on the public left us with more thoughts.

1. From the government's point of view, Golden Week still plays a good role in stimulating domestic demand and promoting economic growth. At present, under the premise that economic development is the first priority, the government can only concentrate on doing great things. For the public, the Golden Week has lost its due significance to some extent. The function of "gathering people's leisure time and providing convenience for people's travel" is getting weaker and weaker. Tourist attractions are overcrowded, tickets are competing for price increases, and the quality of travel is greatly reduced. At first, the public's desire and expectation for the Golden Week has been lost.

Obviously, despite this, it is still impossible to cancel the Golden Week. (1) The Golden Week holiday is a good opportunity for hundreds of millions of migrant workers in China to go home and visit relatives. If it is cancelled, it will cause their extreme dissatisfaction. (2) It is not just migrant workers who disagree. Some office workers are also worried that they will not have a long vacation after the Golden Week system is cancelled. Maybe, chickens can fly. (3) Young people who work in other places can only choose to go back to their hometown to attend the wedding during the Golden Week. In this way, they won't delay their work, and they will get the blessings of their relatives and friends. This is also the reason why the wedding banquet income is considerable during the "Golden Week". (4) The majority of businesses will never give up such a good business opportunity easily. Every year after the Golden Week, it is a good day for merchants to have a bumper harvest in a year, so they will never give up this good opportunity to make money easily.

In view of this, some scholars suggest that the paid vacation system should be in line with international standards. The national paid vacation system means that everyone can set their own vacation time according to their work plan and tasks, and of course they can also take paid vacations.

In developed countries, paid vacation is a common practice and a relatively mature vacation system. Everyone in the United States can take a vacation 16 days a year, while Germany has 35 days, Britain has 28 days and Italy has 42 days. Based on the basic * * * of employees, although the number of vacation days stipulated by different countries is different, no one can be deprived of this vacation right. China implements the annual leave system with different working years. The Regulations on Paid Annual Leave for Employees stipulates: "Employees who have worked for 1 year but less than1year shall have an annual leave of 5 days; Annual leave 10 days if it is over/kloc-0 years but less than 20 years; After 20 years, the annual leave is 15 days. " However, the implementation of this regulation is not optimistic, and many employees still cannot enjoy the right to annual leave. The government must strengthen supervision, especially to formulate practical policies and implement the paid vacation system for employees.

First of all, paid vacation can not only stagger the travel time and disperse the tourists, but also greatly alleviate the pressure of tourism and environment and improve the quality of leisure. Then further expand domestic demand and increase employment. Of course, the implementation of the paid vacation system also needs a process. Some scholars believe that we should learn from the "rotation system" in the United States. For example, we should divide the whole country into three districts, Guangzhou and several neighboring provinces and cities are 1, Shanghai and several neighboring provinces and cities are two districts, and Beijing and several neighboring provinces and cities are three districts, so as to alleviate the negative impact of centralized holidays throughout the country. Some scholars also advocate piloting in some industries in developed areas, such as banking and IT industries, and taking the lead in implementing the paid vacation system to alleviate the pressure brought by the Golden Week.

Secondly, the paid vacation system is conducive to the integration with the international community and the promotion of China's "national image" in protecting * * *. 1The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in February 1948 stipulates that "everyone has the right to rest and leisure, especially the right to reasonable working hours and regular paid holidays". The Tourism Rights Law and the Tourist Code (1985) adopted by the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization in September require governments to "establish and improve the paid annual leave system, stagger the leave dates by better allocating public work and entertainment time, so that everyone can participate in domestic and international tourism." Although holidays are also linked to weekly rest days abroad, the national unified continuous rest time is generally two to three days, and there are few consecutive days. South Korea's Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival have three consecutive days of holidays, and there is no system to adjust holidays when festivals and weekends overlap. In the United States, Friday and Monday are unified as continuous holidays, except for the holidays where Independence Day overlaps with Saturday and Sunday. After China's accession to the WTO, economic and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries have increased day by day, and the number of official and non-governmental organizations and personnel visiting China for tourism, business and official business has increased rapidly. During the long vacation in China, normal and orderly foreign affairs will be affected. At present, a number of well-known foreign enterprises, joint ventures and cooperative enterprises in China have implemented paid vacations or incentive tours in accordance with international practice. In order to enjoy high-quality leisure and holiday life, many overseas employees want to avoid crowded long holidays. In this case, it is very necessary to fully implement the paid vacation system in line with international standards in Chinese government agencies, enterprises and institutions.

After the paid vacation system is generally implemented, the flexibility and convenience brought by decentralized vacation and high-quality leisure enjoyment will gradually reduce the importance of the Golden Week holiday, and the limitations of the Golden Week will become a * * * knowledge, and then the Golden Week holiday can be gradually cancelled. Of course, how to create a holiday system suitable for China's basic national conditions by learning from the experience of other countries and regions needs to be studied continuously.