Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng said today that "very soon" tour groups from the Chinese mainland will be allowed to visit Macau again, as early as "late next month or at the beginning of November".
Ho made the announcement during a special press conference at Government Headquarters this morning about his "important" video conference with Vice Premier Han Zheng yesterday.
Ho, who was flanked by Secretary for Administration and Justice Andre Cheong Weng Chon and Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Long, also said that electronic visas for individual travellers will also "very soon" be issued again by the mainland authorities.
Both tour group and e-visas for individual travellers from the mainland have been suspended since early 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ho said that Vice Premier Han had expressed his "care for and solidarity with" Macau during yesterday's video conference, based on guidelines from President Xi Jinping.
Xinhua reported last night that during his meeting with Ho by video link from Beijing Han voices the central government's "full support for Macau in speeding up its infrastructure construction and appropriately diversifying the economy."
However, Ho also said that for the time being – unlike Hong Kong – Macau will not cancel its mandatory hotel quarantine for arrivals from outside the Chinese mainland. He stressed that the current arrangement of "7+3" will be maintained for the time being, i.e., seven days hotel quarantine followed by three days of self-monitoring at home.
Ho also said that his government expected the number of visitor arrivals to double to 40,000 a day in the near future, thanks to the new arrangement with the central government. He pointed out that Macau received nearly 40 million visitor arrivals in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, or a daily average of about 110,000. He admitted that at that time Macau was struggling to cope with the high number of daily visitor arrivals.
The chief executive also underlined that mainlanders accounted even before the pandemic for the largest number of Macau's visitors.
According to official figures, Macau received 39.4 million visitor arrivals in 2019, mainlanders accounting for 71 percent of the total. Last year, the number of total visitor arrivals stood at 7.7 million, 91 percent of who were from the mainland.
Foreign nationals were barred from visiting Macau in March 2020. Foreigners' entry curbs have been gradually eased since this summer.
Ho said that initially tour groups and individual travellers holding e-visas from Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Fujian and Zhejiang will be allowed by the mainland authorities to travel to Macau. He also said that in the medium term the government expected the daily number of visitor arrivals to reach 80,000.
Ho admitted that Macau's economic situation is "very difficult". Macau has been following the central government's dynamic zero COVID policy. He stressed that as Macau is an inalienable part of China and the large majority of its visitors is from the mainland, the special administrative region ought to follow the central government's anti-pandemic guidelines. He said that he would not comment on Hong Kong's decision earlier this week to drop its mandatory quarantine requirement for arrivals.
Ho also said that 40,000 visitor arrivals per day was the "minimum" number that his government was aiming at.
The chief executive revealed that he and Han also discussed the setting up of mechanism to interrupt the granting of tour group and electronic visas for individuals in the case of a COVID-19 outbreak in one of the provinces or cities covered by the eased travel arrangements.
Both also discussed further cooperation in developing the Guangdong-Macau In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, which was set up about a year ago. Ho said the zone's development in its first year was a success.
Ho also said that it was "impossible" for Macau to cancel all its border entry curbs, based on its current conditions. He said that he expected Macau to receive a "considerable" number of mainland visitors during the upcoming National Day "Golden Week" holiday.
"The economy is the priority of priorities," Ho said about the government ongoing financial support measures for residents, employees, businesses and the self-employed.
The government announced yesterday that residents will receive another 8,000-pataca consumption e-voucher next month.
Ho pointed out that he and Han also discussed a range of matters concerning Macau's infrastructure development drive during yesterday's video conference.
For instance, Ho said, both sides discussed Macau's plans to extend the airport's runway and to dredge its coastal waters so that more planes and larger ships could be accommodated. He also said that plans to lease a small plot of land from Zhuhai were also discussed so that Macau's Light Rapid Transit (LRT) line could be more conveniently extended to Macau's Barrier Gate and Qingmao checkpoints at the Macau-Zhuhai land border.
The plot would be Macau's third leasehold from the mainland, after the about 1-square-kilometer campus of the public University of Macau (UM) in Zhuhai's Hengqin island and a plot of land for the joint Hengqin-Macau border checkpoint.
Ho said the government planned to invite bids for the construction of the LRT's east line between Taipa and the Barrier Gate-Qingmao area in November, adding he hoped that construction could get off the ground next year.
Meanwhile, while Cheong announced during the press conference that the government would hold one-by-one meetings with the seven bidders for Macau's up to six gaming concession next week, Ho stressed that no new land leases would be granted to Macau's gaming concessionaires.
The new gaming concession valid for up to 10 years are slated to start on January 1, 2023.
The press conference lasted one hour and 17 minutes.
Caption: Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng addresses this morning's press conference. Photo: MPDG
