Three new holidays celebrating traditional Chinese festivals (the Tomb Sweeping Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival) were added last year.

The move was in response to public complaints of overcrowding on buses and railways, and at tourists sites.

However, NTA spokesman Liu Xiaojun said yesterday that the administration had not researched the feasibility of resuming the weeklong Labor Day holiday.

"Local governments could develop pilot projects to promote consumption according to their unique situations," the National Business Daily quoted him as saying yesterday.

Tsinghua University professor Cai Jiming, a holiday reform advocate, told the ongoing CPPCC session the weeklong vacation was never intended to stay in place over the long term.

The Labor Day holiday should remain three days long, Cai said.

"Canceling the 'seven-day weekend' cannot influence tourism revenues," he told the National Business Daily yesterday.

But NPC deputy Ma Yuanzhu, who is also president of a Sichuan-based tourism company, said resuming the Labor Day Golden Week could rejuvenate Sichuan's tourism industry.

The sector had slumped since last year's earthquake.

(China Daily March 6, 2009)