Search China Travel News:

With the Mainland's ease of Macao-bound travel restrictions, the Special Administrative Region is now confident to see a strong upturn in the second half year to mend the losses inflicted by the aftermath of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in the first half year.

Four cities in south China's Guangdong Province, which neighbors Macao with a land border gate, were designated to pilot facilitated individual travel (FIT) services to Macao and Hong Kong starting on Monday.

Beijing and Shanghai are expected to be added to the list along with the four cities before September.

Under the policy, the number of Mainland visitors to Macao will increase significantly, said Joao Mannuel Costa Antunes, director of the Macao Tourist Office, on Wednesday when receiving a 250-member delegation from tourist agencies and the media in the Mainland. The delegation was the first large-scale tourist industry exchanges between the Mainland and Macao after the SARS attack, whose mutual tourist visits have soared up to 10 million each year.

The eased Macao-bound travel policy could lead to a surge of 1 million mainland tourists to Macao this year, according to the Macao Tourist Office.

Tourist arrivals in Macao hit a record of 11.53 million in 2002,led by the huge influx of inlanders. The figure represented a 12.2percent rise from the previous year, when Macao for the first time played host to more than ten million tourists.