Lawmaker-cum-restaurateur Andrew Chan Chak Mo, who heads the legislature’s 2nd Standing Committee, said yesterday that the latest revised version of the government-initiated bill regulating the city’s hotel sector – which is currently under review by his committee – proposes that hotels must provide the authorities with their guests’ information when civil protection is activated.
The bill’s outline was passed by a plenary session of the legislature in February 2019. Since then the legislature’s 2nd Standing Committee has been reviewing the bill article-by-article.
The 2nd Standing Committee held a closed-door meeting yesterday to review the bill, after which Chan briefed the media about the latest revised version of the bill that the government has recently submitted to his committee.
The first draft of the bill already states that hotels must record every guest’s information comprising their name, nationality, ID card number, home address, e-mail, and check-in and check-out date and hour. The first draft of the bill also states that hotels are required to keep the information for five years for it to be readily available for the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) or the police to check if they need to. The hotels failing to comply with this requirement would face a fine of between 10,000 and 20,000 patacas.
During yesterday’s briefing, Chan said that the latest revised version of the hotel sector bill proposes that hotels will also have the “obligation” to cooperate with the authorities in the area of civil protection, according to which upon request by the Macau Government Tourism Office, hotels must provide information that is needed for the authorities to carry out their civil protection tasks.
Chan mentioned as an example that when the authorities carry out a large-scale fire drill, upon the request of the authorities, hotels must provide their guests’ information such as their personal details and their check-in and check-out information. Chan also said that according to the latest revised version of the bill, a hotel failing to comply with this requirement would face a fine of between 10,000 and 20,000 patacas.
Chan did not elaborate on the requirement for hotels to provide their guests’ information to the authorities already mentioned in the first draft of the bill.
Chan also said that his committee aimed to submit the bill to a plenary session late next month for its final article-by-article debate and vote.
At the end of February, 120 hotels and guesthouses were in business in Macau, according to the latest available figures.
The legislature’s 2nd Standing Committee President Andrew Chan Chak Mo (right) and the committee’s secretary Wong Kit Cheng address yesterday’s press briefing about the committee’s review of the government’s hotel sector bill. Courtesy: TDM
