The Macau Metro Monitor, February 5, 2013

BORDER CROSSINGS TO GO UP BY 5-8% IN CNY: POLICE Macau Business

Local authorities are forecasting the number of border crossings during the Lunar New Year holiday period to increase by 5 to 8%.  Fuelling the increase is the opening in late December of the Gongbei railway station, the last stop of the high-speed railway link connecting Zhuhai to Guangzhou.

Last year, the police recorded a total of around 2.5 million border crossings during the Lunar New Year holiday period, including tourists, residents, non-resident workers and others.  To handle the peak in border crossings, the Public Security Police has suspended the holidays of all frontline officers and deployed extra staff at the checkpoints, TDM reported.

BEIJING REPRESENTATIVE DENIES VISA RESTRICTIONS Macau Daily Times

The Director of the Chinese Liaison Office in Macau Bai Zhijian said the central government would help Macau to determine how many visitors it can accommodate, which he believed should be done as soon as possible and denied Beijing is playing its visa restriction cards by loosening or tightening the border control targeting the gaming industry. 

Asked if that means visa restriction is looming on the horizon, he said “it all depends on Macau.  If they think there’re too many people, then we can make it fewer, but that doesn’t mean we’re targeting the gaming industry, or testing the water by relaxing the restrictions at one time and tightening it at another.