{"id":8854,"date":"2020-08-11T01:21:37","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T01:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=8854"},"modified":"2026-04-24T02:53:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:53:52","slug":"macau-individual-visa-scheme-to-resume-august-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-individual-visa-scheme-to-resume-august-12","title":{"rendered":"Macau Individual Visa Scheme to resume August 12"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Visas for tour groups will also be reinstated, but authorities warn the move will be revoked if it leads to a surge in Covid-19 cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Macau.- Macau\u2019s Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Ao Ieong U has announced that Zhuhai residents will be able to travel to Macau under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) system again as of August 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those entering the city will still have to provide a negative Covid-19 test no older than seven days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tour group visas will also be reinstated, and there is a possibility that the IVS will be extended to other cities in China if this first stage goes well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the secretary underlined that if the permits lead to an increase in local cases of Covid-19, the policies could be revised or retracted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Macau has not recorded any local cases of Covid-19 in the last 45 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The IVS scheme has been suspended since January due to the Covid-19 crisis. Casinos are eager for its return, since the visas are <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-casinos-could-break-even-in-september\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">used by the majority of Chinese customers<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Greater China accounts for more than 90 per cent of Macau\u2019s tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although the resumption of the IVS visas had an immediate effect on Macau casino operators\u2019 stock, some analysts believe the change in visitation won\u2019t be so quick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vitaly Umansky, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in Hong Kong, told Reuters the direct impact on gaming revenue from the Zhuhai IVS restart is likely to be limited. He said: \u201cThe restart of IVS and group visa issuance is another baby step in the right direction as China and Macau slowly loosen travel between the two jurisdictions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Visas for tour groups will also be reinstated, but authorities warn the move will be revoked if it leads to a surge in Covid-19 cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Macau is reinstating the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) for Zhuhai residents and tour group visas, effective August 12, requiring a negative COVID-19 test. This move, crucial for Macau's casino sector which heavily relies on Chinese visitors, is subject to revocation if it leads to a surge in COVID-19 cases. While operators anticipate a positive impact, analysts project a limited immediate effect on gaming revenue.","focusai_entities":"Ao Ieong U, Sanford C. Bernstein, Vitaly Umansky, Reuters","focusai_location":"Macau, Zhuhai, China, Hong Kong","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.8), compliance_legal (0.7), operator_casino (1.0), marketing_crm (0.7), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"GGR Impact Forecast","query":"What is the projected GGR uplift for Macau operators in Q3\/Q4 following the IVS reinstatement, considering the analyst's cautious outlook on immediate visitation growth?"},{"label":"Operational Readiness","query":"How are Macau's integrated resorts adapting their operational capacity, staffing, and marketing strategies to capitalize on the phased return of Chinese visitors?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338,158],"tags":[227,257,5980],"class_list":["post-8854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","category-slider-home","tag-china","tag-macau","tag-visas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8854"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19695,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8854\/revisions\/19695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}