Eight long weekends in 2009
By Wong Mun Wai, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 21 February 2008 2151 hrs

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SINGAPORE: The dates of public holidays in 2009 were released on Thursday, and many of them fall on the start or the end of a workweek.

With eight long weekends expected next year, travel agents are predicting at least a 20 per cent increase in bookings.

Here is the list of public holidays in 2009:

New Year's Day	1 January (Thu)
Chinese New Year	26, 27 January (Mon, Tue)
Good Friday	10 April (Fri)
Labour Day	1 May (Fri)
Vesak Day	9 May (Sat)
National Day	9 August (Sun)
Hari Raya Puasa	20 September (Sun)
Deepavali	15 November (Sun)
Hari Raya Haji	27 November (Fri)
Christmas Day	25 December (Fri)

But even with all these long weekends, not everyone is considering to head overseas.

Ng Kong Yeam, group executive chairman for Sino-American Tours Corporation, said: "If the children are not in school, then the husbands and wives will go and truly enjoy themselves. However, whenever they have kids in school, they usually travel in June and December."

Many travel agents, however, expect more Singaporeans to travel in 2009 as more people head for a short weekend holiday.

Last year, SA Tours had about 14,500 passengers jet off to places such as Beijing and Tokyo in North Asia, while more than 10,000 passengers took short breaks mainly to Southeast Asia. - CNA/ac