Macau

Applications by mainland Chinese residents to visit Macau is known to be further tightened, according to Macau media report.

The Macao Daily News quoted confirmations by police authorities in Zhuhai and Zhongshan that applications to Individual Travel Permits to Macau by residents of Guangdong Province has been further tightened from the beginning of this month, from once a month to once every two months.

However, no public announcements had been made regarding the decision, nor the travel agencies in Guangdong Province had received any official letters from the authorities.

Checkpoints in Zhuhai had not even been notified, and only realised the decision from the permits issued to individual travellers who passed the checkpoints.

Travel agencies believed that such restrictions will not affect their business, as the number of group tours to Macau organised by them continues to decline.

Restrictions to applications of Individual Travel Permits had been imposed by the mainland authorities several times since the policy to allow individuals to travel to Macau began in the latter half of 2003.

Meanwhile, police in the mainland is reported to be watching and taking measures to stop individuals using fake electronic air tickets to come to Macau as a destination, while claiming that it is a place for transfer to officers.

For application to Individual Travel Permits for business purposes, the Macao Daily News reported that police in Zhuhai has suspended all applications from 2 June, and re-registration has begun to all companies and entities that need to apply for such permits for their employees.

Operators in the tourism sector in Macau said that the decision came as a ‘no surprise’ to them, and many believed that it will be difficult for Macau to break the annual number of visitors benchmark of 30 million.

Other factors, such as the Sichuan earthquake, poor performance in the Chinese stock markets and the Beijing Olympics, may also contribute to the lack of willingness of mainland Chinese to travel.

An owner of a shop that sells local souvenir foods pointed out to the newspaper that his shop suffered from a fall of business turnover of 30% since the monthly application policy was imposed in June.

He predicted that his business turnover will be further decreased by 10% as a result of the new policy, while the average amount of money mainland visitors spend will remain at about RMB60 to 80 Yuan.

Source: Blogmacau.info