The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) plans to discuss “special offers” with airlines and online travel agencies that target independent outbound travellers originating from the Chinese cities of Xi’an and Qingdao, said the organisation in an update.

With effect from Wednesday, residents from those two mainland places have been able apply to travel either to Macau or Hong Kong – for a maximum of seven days per visit – under a mainland exit visa system known as the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS). The two cities have populations of 10 million-plus.

In the case of Macau, travellers from those places can seek either to apply for a permit every three months, or for a once-per-year permit. The terms are according to a February 23 announcement by China’s National Immigration Administration.

Macau’s tourism office did not specify in its Wednesday release what “offers” it was looking to promote to the individual travellers from Xi’an and Qingdao.

But it noted that currently, there are five direct flights between Qingdao and Macau per week, and three direct flights between Xi’an and Macau per week.

Zhuhai in Guangdong province – the nearest mainland city to Macau – has daily flights to Xi’an and Qingdao, according to the latest flight schedule published by Zhuhai’s airport.

Mainland outlet China News Service reported on Wednesday that in 2023, Qingdao’s immigration authorities had processed “over 400,000” travel permits for residents seeking to visit either Hong Kong or Macau, though didn’t specify what forms of permit were handled. Other forms of exit visa available to mainlanders include ones issued for group tours.

The 400,000 figure accounted for over “55 percent” of all types of exit permit that the Qingdao immigration authorities handled in 2023, reported the news outlet, citing the authorities.

It also mentioned that a number of airlines that operate at Xi’an Xianyang International Airport had plans to increase flight frequency to Hong Kong and Macau after March 31.

The addition of Xi’an and Qingdao boosts the list of IVS-eligible places in China to 51.

Mainland China has long been Macau’s most important source of travellers. In January, the city received 2.86 million visitors, of which 71.9 percent – or nearly 2.06 million – were from mainland China, according to data from Statistics and Census Service.

Out of those 2.06 million mainland Chinese visitors, 54 percent entered Macau with an IVS visa. The top three source markets for such IVS visitors in January were: Guangdong province (750,997), Shanghai city (98,826) and the capital Beijing (56,583).

BY: 파워볼실시간