Macau to permit November e-visas and package tours.

For the struggling casino sector in the special administrative region, Macau is to enable package trips and e-visas starting in November in great benefit.
Macau chief executive Ho Iat-Seng announced the news at a Saturday press conference under a package of reforms meant to propel economic growth almost three-years since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, which has devastated the land-based gaming sector in the former Portuguese colony.

Based on these policies, the chief executive said he expected daily visitors to Macau to increase to 40,000.  

Although mainland tourists can enter the city on individual exit-visas, the approval of group and online visas seeks to simplify the visiting process for Chinese guests.

Still a key obstacle to recovery in international visiting numbers, the city has not yet followed Hong Kong's lead in eliminating the required seven-day hotel quarantine regulations for foreign guests.  

First applicable to Guangdong, the new regulations will thereafter apply to Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, Shanghai. Before the epidemic arrived, visitors from these four provinces and cities accounted for most of mainland trips.

The visa policy has a built-in "circuit-breaker" feature that will instantly suspend the online visas once more should a fresh COVID-19 breakout arise.   

Ho added that although Chinese Communist Party (CCP) central committee member Han Zheng hosted a video conference in Beijing to examine possibilities for the special administrative region, the topic of economic recovery in Macau has been on the central government agenda.

Along with business support, economic diversification, and infrastructure spending, the package of policy measures also include

Announced in the framework of the continuous public tender license process, the new measures coincide with the present six concessionaires and the introduction of Malaysia-based gambling operator Genting Group, which has generated controversy recently.