APEC a windfall for tours from Beijing

Travel agencies in Beijing are getting an extra golden week.

They are launching special tours for the six-day holiday during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting next month.

In order to ease traffic on the road, when Beijing hosts the APEC Economic Leaders' meeting from Nov 10 to 11, employees in government departments and institutions in the city will have a six-day holiday from Nov 7 to 12, authorities said on Thursday.

Although companies are not included, some of them still said they would provide a holiday to their employees to support the APEC meetings.

Meanwhile, the local government is encouraging Beijing residents to travel during the holiday, and it is working with some travel agencies to promote tours.

Local residents are happy about the extra holiday and some of them said they would like to travel.

"It's a surprise, and I need to plan seriously for the holiday, since I did not go away during the National Day holidays because of the high prices," said Zhang Jing, a primary school teacher in Beijing.

But people who want to travel during the holiday need to hurry up, as it is coming soon and travel agencies' business is booming.

Travel agencies are very confident that the extra holiday will bring another small Golden Week for their business, and they are already getting bookings.

The city, and the nation, just had a Golden Week for the National Day celebration in early October.

Ctrip.com International Ltd, the largest online travel agency in China, aims to get more than 100,000 customers during the holiday, as its products cover short-term holidays as well as domestic and outbound trips.

"The tourism industry will benefit from the APEC meeting, and our products departing from Beijing are selling very well now," said Dai Yu, marketing director of Ctrip's tourism department.

The six-day holiday is enough for Beijing residents to get to most tourism destinations globally.

Compared with the peak season during the National Day holidays, the price of tours is 30 to 40 percent lower in the traditional off-season, which includes the period during the APEC holiday.

"With the huge discounts in off-season prices and support from the local government, the APEC holiday can be anticipated to be another Golden Week for tourism," said Dai.

Domestic tourism will get the most benefit, especially the areas around Beijing, Dai said, as well as regions in southern China, which are much warmer than Beijing in November.

Some Beijing residents are choosing outbound destinations, Dai added.

Nearby overseas destinations, such as Thailand, South Korea, Singapore and Japan are popular.

"Utour sold out all the products to Taiwan departing on Nov 7 within hours, just after the APEC holiday plan was announced last week," said Wang Zhenyue, deputy director of the direct marketing center of Beijing Utour International Travel Service Co Ltd, an A-share listed travel agency focusing on outbound tourism.

Wang said bookings for some other short-haul trips, such as Southeast Asia, South Korea and India, also increased sharply.

Half of Utour's tour products during the holiday had already been sold by Monday, Wang said.