Millions of tourists are expected to take to the road next week and provide a spur to the holiday industry with the start of the National Day and Chinese Mid-autumn Festival.

The National Tourism Administration forecast that the numbers of people travelling within China could surpass the travel boom that accompanied this year's week-long Labour Day holidays (May 1-7). On that occasion 60 million people went on the move.

Beijing alone is expected to receive around 1.6 to 2 million domestic and foreign visitors during the National Day holidays (October 1-7), according to estimates from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Tourism.

The Ministry of Railways forecasted that the total number of passengers during the week-long holidays will hit 34.5 million, an increase of 3 to 4 per cent on the same period of last year.

The number of passengers will reach 830,000 on September 30, with around 3.98 million on October 1, respectively an increase of 46,000 and 135,000 more than last year's number, predicted the Ministry of Railways.

A total of 39 extra trains will be added to cope with an unprecedented number of passengers, especially on hot routes like Beijing-Shanghai and Shanghai-Guangzhou, said the Ministry of Railways.

And the ministry promised 51 extra tourist trains to prevent a bottleneck of visitors during the holidays.

The information from the Beijing Railways department showed on Wednesday that so far all had been ``normal,'' but an official also indicated that all tickets would be fully booked in the following days.

As for airlines, the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) predicted an average domestic loading rate of 70 to 80 per cent in the following days, with some hot flights surpassing 90 per cent, a slight increase on last year's level.

But the CAAC denied that prices would rise during the holidays.

China Southwest Airlines, one of the nations's biggest airlines, will prepare 550 extra and charted flights during the period between September 29 to October 8 to meet demand during the National Day holidays.

Besides, the Ministry of Communications has recently released its plan for water transportation during the coming holidays.

According to the plan, a total of 1 million additional seats will be used to ensure the smooth water transportation during the festive period.

Around 4 million passengers are expected to travel by water during the upcoming vacation -- almost the same as last year.

The National Tourism Administration has recently set up special offices responsible for updating tourism information and forecasting the transport and accommodation situation.

Tourism bureaux at provincial level are required to establish 24-hour hotlines to deal with any complaints from the public during holidays.

(China Daily 09/21/2001)