A Macau representative in China’s top lawmaking body has dismissed suggestions that visitation from the mainland has reached such a volume that limits need to be imposed.
Two weeks ahead of the meeting of the 12th National People’s Congress in Beijing, Ho Iat Seng told public broadcaster Teledifusão de Macau he will raise issues related to tourism capacity and overcrowding with legislative leaders and will request that authorities on the Chinese side take steps to control crowds during busy holidays.
Mr Ho also is a deputy to the NPC’s 175-member Standing Committee.
Long delays and altercations with police were reported last week at the Border Gate where immigration checkpoints were overwhelmed by a flood of visitors for the Lunar New Year. The Macau Government Tourist Office says the city received 1.48 million visitors from 5th February through the 16th, a 4.2% increase over last year’s holiday period. More than 1 million of them came from mainland China, a 10.5% increase. The Border Gate is the principal entry point from the mainland.
In Hong Kong authorities are looking at possible limits to multiple-entry visas. Mr Ho, however, says it’s not necessary for Macau to consider similar steps. “It doesn’t matter if you put a cap. There will be so many tourists visiting Macau during those eight to 10 [Lunar New Year] days anyway,” he told TDM. “What I want to stress is that the tour groups should better arrange routes and hotel bookings. Individual visitors should also make arrangements based on the tourism capacity of their destination and their own financial abilities.”
MGTO chief Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes agrees that volume is not the issue. “We cannot simply use this holiday season to evaluate the overall tourism capacity of Macau,” she said, adding that the government has learned from this year’s experience and is working to improve arrangements for future peak seasons.
Adding his voice to the discussion, influential Macau legislator Leonel Alves said he’s confident “that the Macau and mainland China authorities will find suitable measures so that neither Macau and its residents nor the tourists will suffer.”
