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With around 9,000 hotel rooms, Macao's capacity to accommodate travelers has fallen behind the soaring demand.

Mainland travelers have been flocking to the 25-square kilometer special administrative region in south China under a facilitated individual travel policy on Hong Kong and Macao-bound travel.

All of the 23 star-ranked hotels in Macao were fully booked last weekend, during which over 7,000 individual travelers visited from seven cities in Guangdong Province that are pilot cities under the new travel policy. More are expected to come as the policy is set to be applied to Beijing and Shanghai on September 1.

Tourist insiders estimated that, under the travel policy, Hong Kong will see 2 million more tourists every year and Macao 1 million more. Tourists from Beijing and Shanghai will surely contribute to raising per-capita tourist spending in the two regions, not only because residents in the two mainland cities boast a high average personal income but also because they are likely to stay longer than traditional group travelers or those from Guangdong.

Several legislators in Macao have suggested that the region's government quickly expand the hotel room capacity. Legislator Chui Sai Cheong said that, although Macao will have sufficient luxury hotels in the long run, the government should encourage the building of cheaper hotels to accommodate the needs of individual travelers.