Abstract A vacation system is an institutional guarantee for residents’ leisure time. The current vacation time has the phenomenon of insufficient supply and uneven distribution. Leisure time has become a constraint factor for tourism consumption, and it is not suitable for the good needs of tourism consumption. It is necessary to discuss the impact of vacation days on tourism consumption. At present, scholars have a certain research basis for the theoretical discussion of the factors affecting tourism consumption, but there are still some problems in empirical research. For example, the lack of individual micro survey data and the selected vacation time variable not reflecting leisure time very well. Therefore, based on the previous theoretical research, the theoretical framework and theoretical hypothesis are put forward, and then based on the data of the National Vacation System Reform Survey of the Leisure Economy Research Center of Renmin University of China in 2017, vacation days as the important factors is included to explore its impact on tourism consumption, finally providing policy recommendations for the reform of China’s vacation system. On the one hand, enriching China’s tourism consumption theory research, on the other hand, it is also helpful to understand the tourism consumption behavior of urban residents in China. This is of great significance in meeting the increasing needs of the people for leisure. Theoretical discussions show that when leisure time is dominant, increasing leisure time can improve the level of tourism consumption, when income is dominant, increasing income can raise tourism consumption. Based on the theoretical framework research, the research hypothesis is established and the regression model is constructed for empirical research. The results show that the number of vacation days has a significant positive effect on tourism consumption. In a modern society with high developing speed, time is becoming the scarcest resource, the unit value of time will be higher and higher, and the degree of hardening of consumers’ time constraints will be greater than that of income constraints. Therefore, we should pay attention to the time value of consumption. Income has a significant positive impact on tourism consumption. Western consumer theory believes that income is the most important factor in determining consumption. For example, Keynes’s ″absolute income theory″, Dusenberg’s ″relative income hypothesis″ and Friedman’s ″permanent income″ all discuss income as a fundamental determinant of household consumption. Tourism consumption is a higher level of household consumption. When income rises to a certain level, tourism consumption demand would certainly increase, so raising income would help to improve tourism consumption. However, the distinct effects of vacation days and income on tourism consumption occur in different income groups. Higher income groups have higher economic value in time and are willing to produce product-intensive goods, rather than time-intensive goods. The degree of hardening of time constraints is greater than that of income. Increasing the number of vacation days of the group can effectively stimulate tourism consumption. Lower income groups are willing to produce time-intensive goods rather than product-intensive goods. Therefore, the degree of hardening of income constraints is greater than that of leisure time. Increasing the income level of lower income groups can stimulate tourism consumption. Finally, it is a recommendable idea to increase the leisure time of residents through the reform of the vacation system, improve labor efficiency to release the potential of tourism consumption, develop the social security system and raise the income of low and middle-income residents.
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