Golden Week stress test for popular destinations

Passengers wait to board trains at Xuzhou East Railway Station in Xuzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, Aug 1, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

The upcoming "Double Festival" holiday, combining the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday and the National Day holiday, is expected to unleash large-scale tourism consumption. Statistics show that the upcoming Golden Week will see a boom in travel.

Facing the surge in tourists and changes in their travel preferences and modes, ensuring safety, market order and a positive tourist experience will require thorough preparation. For instance, in terms of safety and market regulation, tailored and fine-tuned approaches based on specific situations and technological conditions should be emphasized, so as to provide tourists with timely, easy-to-follow and operationally feasible guidance and technical recommendations.

Besides, considering the relatively vulnerable position of the elderly when traveling, there should be a focus on making travel more friendly to senior tourists. This includes improving the elderly population's access to information channels and their ability to protect their rights, fully utilizing the internet, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies to prepare for early warning, assessment and rapid response in case of emergencies.

For places where past tourism market issues have appeared, it may be worthwhile to deploy law enforcement resources in advance, and strengthen inspection and regulatory efforts so as to effectively safeguard the legal rights and interests of tourists. Of course, the fundamental solution lies in increasing the supply of high-quality tourism products and services. More high-quality tourism products and services should be offered to give tourists more choices.

Given the reality of a short-term and concentrated increase in demand coupled with a relatively inadequate supply of tourism resources, the upcoming Golden Week is more like a stress test for the entire society. To address this test, there should be better coordination and cooperation among the public, businesses and local governments. The relevant government departments should be well prepared in advance to ensure the safety and enjoyment of every traveler.