Macau urges China to resume issuing digital visas

The e-visa programme would benefit tourism by allowing more Chinese residents to travel to Macau.

Macau.- The Macau Government Tourism Office is pressing the Chinese government to restart the electronic version of the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) for Chinese citizens that wish to visit the city.

The government in Macau is anxious to improve visitor numbers after the city received fewer visits than expected during Chinese New Year.

The IVS was suspended completely at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was later reintroduced but only through in-person applications, which can take up to two weeks to be approved.

MGTO director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes said: “The in-person process would make tourists hesitant, and a switch back to a digital application process would increase visitor numbers significantly.”

This year’s Chinese New Year week saw just 90,615 visitor arrivals across, which represents a 65.3 per cent decline from the 261,069 arrivals last year.