MGTO: prioritise budget accommodation applications

The Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) has stated that applications for operating Abudget accommodations for visitors will be prioritised, in a bid to expedite the introduction of different offerings of hotels and inns in the city.
The president of the Macau Hoteliers & Innkeepers Association, Chan Chi Kit, previously revealed that the government is not in favour of lowering the standard requirements for accomodation operators in the city in order to facilitate new hostels.
Earlier this year, the government cited the results of a survey conducted by MGTO stating that Macau residents’ intentions to start family hostels had declined, claiming factors such as public safety, environmental hygiene and traffic conditions among others.
Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On also announced in his 2017 Policy Address an attempt to boost and promote the development of budget hotels.
Regarding listings in Macau appearing on sites such as the Chinese short-term home rental platform Xiaozhu.com, MGTO stated that ‘Tujia [another Chinese online home rental site] or Xiaozhu are not operated in Macau, therefore MGTO has no comments’.
Meanwhile, the Public Security Force Police discovered four cases of illegal lodging during Golden Week (between 1 and 8 October 2017), and a total of 267 cases of illegal lodging have been detected since January 2017 until mid-October.