Led by Deputy Director of Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) Manuel Pires, a working team comprising representatives of the Tourism Development Committee and MGTO went to Beijing for a work meeting with China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) on December 14. The main objective was to provide a detailed report to CNTA about the Hebei tour group incident at Hac Sa Beach. In addition, the delegation heard valuable opinions and suggestions of CNTA on market regulation and other issues concerning the tourism industry.

During the meeting, members of the delegation first thanked CNTA for its continuous support and attention throughout the years for the tourism industry of Macau, which has flourished under the favorable conditions created by the continuous opening of the Mainland tourism market in recent years, and also sought the continuous support and guidance of CNTA for its work in the future. The delegation also reported in detail to CNTA about the Hebei tour group incident which occurred at Hac Sa Beach on December 4 as well as the latest results of the investigation.

Following the implementation of the "Macau Tour" policy in the beginning of 2002, MGTO has actively complemented the measures put in place by CNTA. In order to ensure that the local travel agents who are qualified to operate "Macau Tour" provide quality service and operate with honest travel practices, MGTO and travel agents of Macau jointly established and confirmed a "Macau Tour" management mechanism for receiving agents, which dictated that travel agents violating the related clauses will be disqualified from receiving "Macau Tour" by MGTO and reported to CNTA. Since the management mechanism has been in operation for a number of years, and the tourism market has experienced rapid development in recent years, MGTO is currently discussing with the Association of Macau Tourist Agents, Travel Industry Council of Macau and Macau Travel Agency Association to establish a new management mechanism for "Macau Tour" that is in line with the actual conditions of Macau's tourism industry. The relevant clauses are expected to be completed early next year.

Members of the delegation also conveyed their intention of improving the management mechanism to the leadership of the Industry Management Department of CNTA, who expressed CNTA's accord and support to MGTO in reexamining and drafting the new management mechanism, which will play an active role in supervising "Macau Tour" receiving agents. They also suggested both parties to reconfirm and release the list of the Mainland tour operators and Macau receiving agents, and to restate the requirement that the organizing and receiving of tours of Mainland citizens to Macau must be operated between designated Mainland tour operators and Macau receiving agents.

In relation to the suggestion to "consider the possibility of establishing reasonable package tour cost and honest travel practices" and the issue of providing reference basic tour cost and other matters, advocated in the document on "Opinions related to managing Mainland package tour groups to Macau" jointly submitted to CNTA early this year by the Association of Macau Tourist Agents, Travel Industry Council of Macau and Macau Travel Agency Association, the delegation expressed to leadership of the Industry Management Department that the three associations will continue to support the related suggestions brought forward in the document, and MGTO will take on the responsibility in cooperation with the tourism industry of Macau to actively promote honest travel practices. CNTA also suggested the Macau tourism authorities to study the launching of "Honest Macau Tour" product and expressed its wish to jointly promote with MGTO.

Leadership of the Industry Management Department of CNTA expressed that CNTA has all along enjoyed a sound communication mechanism with the tourism authorities of Macau and information exchange on the development of the tourism industry of Macau can take place at anytime. CNTA will, as always, give unwavering support to the development of Macau's tourism industry, and hopes that through joint effort with the tourism authorities of Macau, to achieve effective regulation of market order, to combat against malpractices in the market and ensure a sustainable and healthy development of the tourism market.