According to Xinhua News Agency, the General Office of the State Council recently issued the "National Tourism and Leisure Outline (2013–2020)," proposing to basically implement a paid annual leave system for employees by 2020. It aims to ensure leisure time, improve the leisure environment, advance the development of national tourism and leisure infrastructure, and enhance public services for tourism and leisure.
Following the release of this outline, it has garnered widespread attention from the media and the public, with the implementation of paid leave for employees becoming a key focus. In contrast, the tourism industry is more focused on the positive momentum brought about by the policy, expressing greater confidence in the future development of the tourism and leisure sector.
Tujia.com (www.tujia.com), a platform dedicated to high-quality vacation rental bookings, recently announced the completion of a 400 million yuan funding round. Its CEO, Luo Jun, shared his views on the release of the outline:
"First, the introduction of the outline provides clearer policy guidance for tourism and leisure, especially by setting a timetable for the implementation of paid leave. It can be said that the issue of time constraints for tourism and leisure has been addressed. Looking at our current guests staying in vacation rentals, many are families traveling together—seniors and children have relatively flexible schedules, while their working children benefit from the implementation of paid leave, ensuring more reliable time off."
"Second, the outline encourages the development of tourism and leisure infrastructure. For our vacation rental industry, this essentially means effectively integrating online and offline resources. Currently, the real estate market in tourist cities is booming, but there is a high vacancy rate. Tujia integrates these resources, helping property owners achieve investment appreciation while offering travelers new types of vacation accommodation."
"Third, the outline emphasizes strengthening the development of national leisure products and organizing related activities. It specifically mentions encouraging suburban rural vacations, as well as actively developing cycling tourism, self-drive tourism, sports and fitness tourism, medical wellness tourism, hot spring and ski tourism, and cruise and yacht tourism. These forms of leisure tourism all require accommodation support. Vacation rentals offer multiple advantages such as 'home-like experience, great value, diverse room types, and private comfort,' meeting the needs of various types of tourism and leisure users."
In addition, he stated that since its establishment, Tujia has consistently advocated unified service standards and consistent service experiences in delivering service quality. This aligns perfectly with the outline’s emphasis on improving the quality of national tourism and leisure services.
Finally, Luo Jun also expressed hope for government support for entrepreneurial enterprises in the tourism and leisure sector following the release of the outline.