Macau officials confirmed this week that the enclave’s government is actively working with mainland China administrators to restore the e-visa process for the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS).
Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, seen here earlier this month in Macau, is the director of the Macau Government Tourism Office. She says faster processing times for Individual Visit Scheme visas are needed for the region’s economic recovery. (Image: Macau News Agency)
Mainland China suspended electronic IVS applications in January of 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. China did so in order to prevent its people from traveling to Macau and Hong Kong.
The Macau government’s intense marketing efforts in mainland China appear to have borne fruit over the Christmas holiday season with hotels reaching an average occupancy rate of 70 per cent. According to figures from the Macau Government Tourism Office, the average daily number of visitors was more than 24,000 between December 23 and 27. That was an increase of 20 per cent for the days in December prior to the 23rd and up 30.5 per cent from the average daily number of visitors in October. A total of 93 per cent of the arrivals were from mainland China. The average occupancy in three-star hotels was 78.4 per cent, while Macau’s five-star properties saw occupancy of 70.4 per cent.