Government hints: travel restrictions on mainland arrivals to ease

The Macau SAR government is considering easing travel restrictions for tourists coming from mainland China as the Covid-19 situation on both sides of the border is improving.

Recently, there has been a decline in coronavirus cases in mainland China – where the virus originated – while the number of cases outside of the country has surged.

In a press conference held by the Health Bureau (SSM) last week, authorities said that the situation in mainland China has improved.

“The current situation of Covid-19 in mainland China is easing, infection numbers in many provinces and cities have not increased for many days, so we are evaluating the current policies towards mainland China,” a representative of the local health authority said.

Since the start of the outbreak in Macau, Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng has been adamant about not closing the city’s borders with China, despite the growing number of Covid-19 cases in the mainland.

However, the government has introduced procedures such as quarantine measures and medical checks for those arriving from cities with high numbers of Covid-19 cases.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government has maintained its ban on the booking of overseas tours as well as the purchase of flights and hotels abroad, calling on travel agencies to suspend package tours, which represent more than half of outbound travel.

The absence of visitors arriving from mainland China and the 15-day closure of Macau’s casinos were major factors in last month’s gross gaming revenue collapse of 87.8%, recording only 3.1 billion patacas for the entire month.

Gaming analysts expect little improvement this month with brokerage JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd. forecasting that revenue may still plunge up to 80%. LV