How can we draw more from tourism

The National Day holiday saw another parade, which may not have been as smooth as the one in Beijing on Oct 1, but was equally, if not more, important. It showed the strength of China's economy and how much money it can generate from its everyday life to pay for its defense systems and colorful publicity campaigns.

Few academics have really done research on the costs and benefits a holiday week (it was for eight days this year) can bring to a country of 1.3 billion people. But at least, we have seen part of the result. With the development of the economy, and with more people moving or migrating to cities, a long holiday (Spring Festival is another weeklong holiday) is the time of "gushing" (to use the term of the Chinese press) tourist demand.

During the just-concluded holiday week, domestic tourists took an estimated 200 million trips, while millions of wealthier residents (mainly from large cities and coastal areas) traveled to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Many visited foreign countries, too.