Well the official public holiday is only one day on the 8th, but companies and people allocate time off during that time differently. A lot of domestic companies close entirely for the week, some others allow employees to chose the week they want to take between the Aug 8th holiday and Silver week in September. (which is how my partner's company does it, and we always take it for Silver week). But yes lots of outbound travel during that month.

GDS is global distribution system, what travel agents use to book tickets. Sabre, Amadeus, and Travelport are the main ones. I think the people who have mentioned it in the forum have mostly mentioned they have Sabre access.