Why do you have to spit out the "May Day holiday"?
This holiday lasts for five days, which is one of the longest May Day holidays after the cancellation of the May Day Golden Week in 2008. This should be a happy thing, but it has attracted a lot of complaints, because only 1 day is a real holiday in these five days, and the other four days include two weekends and two rest days. Many netizens feel that in order to "piece together" a small holiday, they paid the price of being affected for two weekends before and after, disrupting the original normal pace of work and life, and it seems that it is not worth the candle.
Objectively speaking, everyone's spit is not unreasonable. Even CCTV commented that "we can't blame netizens for being melodramatic". But from the perspective of economics, we will find that this is not "pleasing" but reasonable.
Let me ask you a question first: Why would you rather "cobble together" than take five days off?
The answer is actually very simple: promoting consumption.
Since 2020, apart from the epidemic, the word we have heard the most is probably "promoting consumption". Especially in the process of economic recovery after the epidemic, from the central government to the local government, promoting consumption is regarded as an important starting point for macroeconomic policy formulation, such as issuing consumer vouchers and providing car purchase subsidies before, and accelerating the development of new consumption and cultivating international consumption center cities recently, which all highlight the important position of consumption.
Fortunately, this year's China consumer market has well continued the recovery momentum since the second half of last year. According to the statistics of the first quarter, food, oil, food, drinks, etc. that must be consumed. It has recovered to the pre-epidemic level or even higher, and the optional consumption of cars, gold and silver jewelry and communication equipment has also recovered well.
However, when introducing the current domestic consumption situation, the leaders of the Ministry of Commerce still pointed out the problem: "The consumption rebound is unbalanced ... the consumption demand of the people has not been fully met."
Where is the "imbalance"? What aspects of people's consumption demand have not been fully met? Tourism must be one of them.
As we all know, because the tourism industry has the nature of travel, gathering and socializing, the whole industry is most obviously affected by the epidemic, and even almost stopped: scenic spots are closed, hotels are idling, restaurants are closed, and flights are sharply reduced ... Many travel agencies have encountered difficulties such as tight gold coin flow, intensified service difficulties and disputes over travel contracts, and their business expectations in 2020 have been completely subverted. Although the epidemic prevention and control situation has continued to improve steadily and the tourism industry has shown an obvious recovery trend, the progress still lags behind other consumption areas.
Taking Tomb-Sweeping Day this year as an example, the data shows that the number of domestic tourists during the three-day holiday reached 65.438+0.2 billion, which has recovered to about 90% of the pre-epidemic level, but the domestic tourism revenue was only 56% of the same period in 2065.438+09. Although there are some factors, such as Zhou Bianyou, short-distance tours, and the reduction or exemption of tickets in some scenic spots, it is an indisputable fact that the tourism consumption market is relatively depressed.
As far as tourism itself is concerned, it not only involves restaurants, hotels, transportation, scenic spots, supermarkets, entertainment facilities and many other fields, but also involves agriculture, gardens, construction, insurance, communications, advertising and other supporting industrial sectors, contributing 1 1% GDP and nearly 80 million jobs, which is of far-reaching significance to the development of the national economy.
From this perspective, if tourism consumption can be stimulated, it will inevitably lead to the recovery of consumption in a series of industries. But the premise is that China people should have enough leisure time, otherwise it will be difficult to put it into practice.
This is the good intention of the May Day holiday for five consecutive days: to stimulate the "holiday economic effect" to boost the tourism market and even the national economy.
In fact, the energy of "holiday economic effect" is often positively related to the length of holidays. For example, seven days before the National Day holiday last year, the country received 6180,000 domestic tourists, a year-on-year recovery of 79.0%; Domestic tourism revenue reached 454.33 billion yuan, a year-on-year recovery of 69.9%. Many people who go to popular tourist cities or scenic spots can personally experience the crowded and traffic jams. Affected by this, hotels, homestays, restaurants, leisure, entertainment and other related fields have achieved considerable growth, contributing greatly to the positive economic growth throughout the year.
In addition, even a five-day rest provides people with more choices. For example, many people who can't go home because of the initiative of "celebrating the New Year on the spot" can make full use of this May Day holiday to visit their parents and spend time with their wives and children. Isn't this a wonderful sight?
But why take a long vacation?
A large part of the reason is to stabilize economic production and not relax.
Looking at the moment, although the domestic epidemic prevention and control situation continues to be stable and improving, all walks of life are running smoothly and orderly, and the vaccination work is progressing step by step, we should still be soberly aware that the overseas epidemic situation is still not optimistic, with virus mutations in many countries and high new cases every day. A new round of global epidemic alert has sounded, and many regions in China are facing the risk of importing from abroad. Once a new case is found, it will inevitably affect the local economic operation.
Not only that, the previous epidemic also brought a lot of pressure to the production and operation of many enterprises. Thanks to the prevention and control of domestic epidemic situation, this stage is a good opportunity to regroup and catch up quickly. From the employer's point of view, if the rest plan is not implemented on the basis of five consecutive days of rest, it is likely to affect the work rhythm and business recovery momentum, and increase the burden on enterprises to some extent.
Why did China's economy perform so well in the first quarter? One of the key reasons is that "celebrating the New Year on the spot" has significantly reduced the number of people returning home, greatly shortened the downtime, and the pace of returning to work after the Spring Festival is faster than in previous years, especially in industry and construction, which has changed the situation of poor employment stability and relatively slow recovery of production capacity in previous years, and the effective production capacity has remained at a high level, thus greatly promoting the economic boost and recovery, and driving the improvement of many key indicators such as per capita disposable income and employment rate.
In short, only by stabilizing production activities can we stabilize the basic economic disk; When the basic market is stable, the unemployment rate will drop, people's income will be more secure, and a happy life will be more emboldened. If work and income are affected, even if we can give a few more days off, I'm afraid it's hard for people to have enough leisure and elegance to enjoy.
After all, "development is still the key and foundation to solve all problems."
However, to be honest, South China University of Technology is really "hardworking" and is famous all over the world.
Here, we can simply calculate an account: if weekends are excluded, the annual legal holiday for China people is 16 days, not to mention high-welfare countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden and developed countries such as France, Britain and the United States. In Asia alone, China's legal holidays are also significantly lower than those of Japanese and Vietnamese. In addition, in terms of total working hours, in 20 18 years, China's average working hours are as long as 2 100 hours, which is second only to Mexico's 2225 hours and far higher than other countries. It is worth mentioning that the phenomenon of "996" and "5+2" overtime in many big cities is not surprising. Now even civil servants and institutions are very busy.
At this time, some people may ask: since we are working so hard, why can't we have a few more days off?
The reason is that the current stage of economic development in China is not enough to support a long holiday. Although it is already the second largest economy in the world and its development achievements are obvious to all, the pace of development among different industries and regions is not consistent. Moreover, in terms of per capita GDP, China ranks 70th in the world, which is far behind developed countries and high-welfare countries. Moreover, almost all the residents in these countries have experienced heavy workload and busy work. It can be said that a highly developed economy is a prerequisite for people to take a long vacation, which is exactly the old saying that "the economic base determines the superstructure".
But objectively speaking, the real strength of a country is not only reflected in the material wealth of the whole society, but also in the joy and sublimation of China people's spirit, which, to a great extent, requires enough leisure time for blessing. From this perspective, it is really necessary to extend the holiday. From an economic point of view, this can not only promote consumption, but also give people more time to learn new skills and reflect on lessons, which will help improve the quality of human capital and drive the national economy to achieve higher quality development.
In fact, if we look back at history, we will find that China people's holidays have actually been continuously extended. The most representative example is that with the development of the national economy and the progress of the times, China's weekend vacation system has been adjusted from the past 1 day and 1.5 days to the present two-day vacation, and some areas are still exploring the 2.5-day vacation system. At the same time, China is still committed to improving paid leave. The commentary published by CCTV once again mentioned: "The key strategy is to implement the paid vacation system, give people more freedom and space to travel, and make tourism and vacation more independent and balanced", which is undoubtedly a positive signal.
Everything is developing in a good direction, so we might as well be more patient and confident.
Should I be quarantined after May Day travel?
Generally, isolation is not needed, but it is recommended to observe it by yourself 14 days. City where the high-risk area is located: Returnees from the city where the high-risk area is located should carry out "Four Ones" health management with negative results of novel coronavirus nucleic acid test within 7 days, that is, issuing health notice, conducting health inquiry, checking health code and conducting nucleic acid test. Among them, centralized isolation and health observation were carried out for 14 days for returnees from counties (districts) where high-risk areas are located or local governments have announced the closed management of the whole area, and nucleic acid detection was carried out at their own expense on the first day, the seventh day and the fourteenth day. Prefecture-level city where the medium-risk area is located: Returnees from prefecture-level city where the medium-risk area is located must carry out "four ones" health management with negative results of novel coronavirus nucleic acid test within 7 days, that is, release health notice, conduct health inquiry, check health code and conduct nucleic acid test. Among them, people from counties (districts) in moderate risk areas report to village committees, units (or hotels) within 12 hours after their return, conduct family health monitoring on 14 days, and conduct nucleic acid detection on 1 4 days. Without family conditions, centralized isolation health observation 14 days. Other low-risk areas: low-risk returnees, with green health code and normal body temperature, do not need isolation in principle. It is recommended to consult your village, community and hotel in advance so that you have enough time to prepare in advance.
May 1 ST tourism isolation policy
1, maintain a good sense of personal protection, wear masks scientifically and regularly (especially when taking public transport and activities in public places), wash your hands frequently and keep a safe social distance; Don't party, don't attend big parties; Advocate the use of public chopsticks in restaurants, tourism and family dinners, and advocate a healthy lifestyle.
2, pay close attention to the epidemic situation, if not necessary, don't go to the epidemic area.
3. Keep abreast of epidemic prevention and control policies in travel places, actively cooperate with epidemic prevention and control work, show "health code" and "travel code" as required, cooperate with temperature measurement, and accept real-name registration; Observe epidemic prevention and control measures such as booking tickets in scenic spots and venues, restricting the flow of people, and try to wear masks in indoor scenic spots and venues.
4. Don't organize or participate in large-scale parties, dinners and other party activities during holidays to reduce the gathering of people.
5, 14 days have been to high-risk areas of epidemic situation or places overlapping with the trajectory of COVID-19 cases, and should take the initiative to declare to the local community, and cooperate with various prevention and control measures of the local epidemic prevention and control headquarters.
6, fever, cough, diarrhea, fatigue and other symptoms, timely to the nearest fever clinic for investigation and diagnosis and treatment, and cooperate with the doctor to do epidemiological investigation, wear a mask during medical treatment, try to avoid taking public transport.
7. Residents who meet the vaccination conditions in COVID-19 should make an appointment as soon as possible and vaccinate in an orderly manner according to the local vaccination plan.
Do you need to do nucleic acid testing for May Day outing?
If you go from a low-risk area to a low-risk area, you generally don't need nucleic acid detection. If you travel to high-risk areas or overseas, you need not only nucleic acid detection, but also isolation. According to the relevant epidemic prevention regulations, if people are in low-risk areas, nucleic acid testing is generally not needed for May Day trips. The health code is in a green code state and the temperature can be normal. However, if it comes from a high-risk area, it is generally necessary to isolate it for 14 days for nucleic acid detection. During May Day, it is necessary to travel at the wrong peak, spend money online, optimize the time of returning to school on holidays, minimize the flow of people, strictly control the traffic flow, improve the efficiency of personnel passage, and strictly abide by the relevant regulations and requirements of personnel management in various public places such as conferences and scenic spots.